


MTS&YSH Extras

by KassandraScarlett



Series: My Trembling Soul and Your Scarred Heart [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Female Tony Stark, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2019-07-02 07:44:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 21,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15792123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KassandraScarlett/pseuds/KassandraScarlett
Summary: Just extra scenes that I couldn't fit into the actual story. It'd be useful to read these, actually, because they do contribute to the story.





	1. The Morning After

**Author's Note:**

> This one takes place in the first chapter, the morning after Toni as Stephen first meet.

  As was the case whenever she brought someone home with her, Toni's mind forced her to wake up early. She took a minute, keeping her eyes closed, to gather her bearings in the darkness. As she regained the voluntary use of her body, she registered an arm wound around her naked waist and a steady flow of air at the back of her neck. _Hmm_. Now that was something that hadn't happened before.

  Opening her eyes, she carefully lifted the arm away, then turned slowly to face the sleeping man known as Stephen Strange. Anticipating her need, JARVIS switched on the lights at a low 15% brightness, just enough for her to see his face and deduce what she could.

  Chiselled jaw, high cheekbones, thin lips slightly parted, a hint of premature greying in his pproduct-filled hair, just around his temple. It looked good on him, though. There were dark circles under his eyes, indicating many sleepless nights. PTSD, maybe? After the accident, it wouldn't be surprising. Though, there was nothing to indicate that he was having a restless sleep now.

  Scooting away an inch, she let her eyes travel further down. Narrow shoulders: he used to be painfully thin. Lean torso, so he definitely works out. Muscled calves, probably from running around in the ER and between back-to-back surgeries. Her gaze fell on his hands. They were badly scarred and she could see the minute trembling. But the fingers were long and thin and she could bet they used to be smooth as a child's hand, so unlike her own. She felt an urge to examine the scars; her ever-present desire to fix things. But that would probably wake him up. From what she remembered of last night _(all of it, thanks to her perfect memory)_ , his scars were actually quite sensitive.

  Which, speaking of last night, Toni realized that had been one of the best nights she'd had in many years. Strange shared her sarcastic humour and they'd kept up a steady flow of verbal teasing and terrible jokes. It had been a long time since she'd enjoyed sex in more than just the physical sense.

  The last time had been Pepper, when she'd convinced the redhead that, no, it wouldn't affect their working relationship or their friendship, nor would the encounter influence her image in Toni's eyes. That had been over ten years ago, when Toni had still been young and naive enough to believe that if you didn't laugh during sex, then really, what was the point?

  As she stared at the doctor's ridiculously handsome features, lost in her thoughts, it occurred to Toni for a very, _very_ brief moment that she didn't want to get up. She wanted to go back to sleep, then maybe wake up with Stephen and see him out herself, maybe be friends, maybe try for an actual relationship.

  The next moment, Toni swung her legs of the bed, whispering to JARVIS to turn the lights off, and crept out. Pepper would take care of Strange.


	2. Latin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter: Clive Baxter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place in Iron Man 2; Clint's interview as Clive Baxter...

  Clive Baxter was a well-built man, with very sharp instincts, hidden by an unassuming air. The first thing Toni noticed about him was the way his eyes surveyed the entire room and it's occupants, namely Happy and herself, as he approached them from behind Pepper.

  "I need you to sign these, now," Pepper ordered, holding out a clipboard and pen to her. Toni signed it, eyeing the man curiously. He met her gaze head-on, blue eyes sharp as they ran over her body, though it felt more analytical than attraction.

  "Know how to box?" She asked abruptly, ignoring Pepper's quietly desperate, " _No_ , Toni!"

  "Sure, I do," Baxter answered.

  "Get in."

  He climbed into the ring and she chugged down a bottle of water, feeling the strain on her chest from sparring with Happy. He was reasonably good-looking, in a quiet, mild way.

  "Give him a few lessons, will you, Happy?" she ordered and hopped off the stage.

  "Who the hell is he?" She demanded of Pepper and she handed her a tablet. She started swiping the screens, looking over the brief, but detailed history of Clive Baxter: Fashion model mom. Absent father. Light training in martial arts. Fluent in six languages, including Latin.

  Toni stopped reading at that. "I don't like him," she frowned and Pepper copied the expression.

  "Why? He's from Legal, he's got a clean record, he doesn't even have a single speeding ticket." She sounded confused and Toni didn't blame her. She wasn't sure what was prickling her either.

  "He knows Latin," she tried to reason out loud. "Why?"

  Now, the redhead rolled her eyes. "You know Latin," she pointed out in exasperation. "And a dozen other languages."

  "More," Toni corrected. "But I learnt it because I do business with people all over the world. It was a necessity. Why would a guy from Legal need to learn what's essentially a dead language?"

  Before Pepper could think of an answer, there was a yelp of pain and both of them looked up to see Happy lying flat on the ground with Clive standing above him. Toni felt her lips draw into a thin line.

  "We're hiring him," Pepper decided. "He's efficient."

  Toni said nothing, though JARVIS began running searches into the files of Clive Baxter.


	3. Aryan Ideals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Toni Stark left Steve Rogers dumbfounded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place between Iron Man 2 and The Avengers.

  The call came just after she returned from a meeting. "Consulting hours are every other Thursday, Nicky-"

  " _We found Steve Rogers a couple weeks back_."

  Toni froze up, one foot still in the air as the words rang in her ears. Steve Rogers had been found. Steve Rogers. Captain America. Her fath- Howard's preferred option. The bane of her childhood.

  "I'm in Malibu," she said. Her voice sounded dead to her own ears. "Give me two hours."

  Sure enough, two hours later, she was standing in a Shield facility, in a room with Maria Hill and Nick Fury. She'd resisted getting drunk on the way over; a remnant desire not to disappoint the ghost of her father, or Rogers himself. God, she hated both of them.

  "He's in a fragile state," Hill explained. "He's been asking after your father and Margaret Carter. Nobody's told him anything, though. We thought it best if he heard it from a familiar person. You're the closest thing to that."

  "So try not be your usual self," Fury put in bluntly.

  Toni nodded curtly as she headed to the infirmary, silently disagreeing with their idea of keeping the soldier in familiar surroundings. If he was going to live in this century, he needed to grow up. _Fast_.

  The door opened and Toni's breath caught in her throat as she came face to face with the blond, blue-eyed paragon of the ideal human being.

  "Captain Rogers," she greeted, keeping her attitude aloof.

  "Ma'am," Rogers greeted, standing swiftly to shake her hand. He seemed to be looking for something as his eyes travelled down her blazer, pencil skirt and heels, before flying up to take in her long hair twisted in a bun, back down to glance at her blood red lips, before meeting her gaze again. Whatever he'd been searching for, he must have found it because he relaxed minutely. "I take it you're Miss Stark? It's a pleasure to meet you," he continued at her nod. "I was wondering, where's your father, if I may know?"

  "Howard's dead," Toni answered, not bothering to mince her words. She could practically see Fury shaking his head in the surveillance room.

  Rogers stared at her in shock. "H-how... When?"

  "1991. Car accident."

  Rogers stood in stupefied silence for a long couple of seconds. Then, shaking himself, he said softly, "I'm sorry for your loss. What about Margaret Carter? She was friends with Howard."

  Toni wanted to scream. Rogers had kept her father away from home when he'd been missing. Now, he wanted to intrude into the one link she had to her childhood?

  "She's alive," she replied calmly. "She's in an old-age home in Brooklyn. However, she's been affected by dementia. It's unclear how much she remembers of you." That was a lie. There were three things Aunt Peggy never forgot: her training, Toni and Steve Rogers. "I can have you put in contact with her if you want.

  "I- I see," Rogers stuttered. "Thank you, yes, I would like that."

  Toni gave a sharp nod and turned to leave, trying to restrain from either running away or punching someone in the face.

  "I assume we'll be seeing each other again."

  The matter-of-fact way he spoke, how he just took it for granted that they'd be meeting again, pissed her off royally. She broke the relatively good behaviour she'd been on since she'd gotten the news and turned back halfway to look at Rogers.

  "Oh, _sugar_ ," she laughed, her tone overly sweet and mocking. "I've got far, _far_ more important things to worry about than century-old virgin super soldiers. Don't count on hearing from me again."

  She smirked, enjoying the way Rogers gaped at her, disbelieving and scandalised. Then, she turned on her heel and walked away, knowing nobody would even try to stop her.


	4. Free-fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephen has a nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place right after The Avengers. Steve and Toni haven't gotten together yet and Stephen is still dealing with his feelings. And he doesn't know about Toni's panic attacks yet.

  Toni nearly collapsed as she finished going over the final paperwork for changing the name of Stark Tower to Avengers Tower on the lease. Honestly, there was a reason she'd delegated the entire company to Pepper.

  _(Something was wrong. Something was lurking in the darkness looming in front of him and Stephen should stop walking straight towards it, but his body wasn't quite listening to him. Something was_ definitely _wrong.)_

  With a satisfied hum, she cleared up the room, ready to fall asleep. For some reason, the ambience and soft silence of the Sanctum always lulled her to a deeper sleep than anywhere else. Or maybe it was just the knowledge that Stephen was barely two doors away and would be up for her in an instant if she needed him.

  _(The darkness took shape, a shape that terrified Stephen to his very core._ Dormammu _. Before he could think about a move, there was a sudden scream. It was a sound full of fear, desperation and it was all too familiar._ Toni.)

  The dim lights turned off, the curtains shut to block out the tiniest bit of light from the streets, just as she liked it, Toni settled under the blankets. For some reason, the idea crossed her mind that she needed to check on Stephen. She dismissed it the next second; they were in one of the most secure places this side of the country, protected both by Stephen and Wong's wards and JARVIS keeping an eye on it through satellite. Not to mention, there was always an armour stored in one of the empty rooms. She relaxed, her body loosening and her tired mind slowing down.

  _(She was falling, falling fast and naked of her armour. Even worse, she was falling straight into a portal, into a fucking wormhole, and Toni may not have had any lasting impressions of the incident, but Stephen grew cold at random moments, recalling the sheer panic he'd felt watching her fall in a dead suit. He raised his arms to create a spell to catch her, to slow her descent. But his arms refused to move. He was completely immobilised and he couldn't look away as Toni vanished into space.)_

__

  Toni wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep before she felt something jostling her. There was something soft on her cheek, a gentle, though rushed caressing that let her know who it was. Opening her eyes, she tried to summon a smile for the Cloak hovering over her.

  "What's wrong, Lev?" She yawned out, trying to focus. Levi floundered, obviously confused and... And scared? Toni sat up instantly, sleep forgotten. She watched Levi carefully, her dark red hems gesturing wildly, another corner lifting to point outside her room. It took Toni seconds to understand and she leapt out of bed immediately, dashing out and down the hall to the next room.

  _(All of a sudden she reappeared, falling down again at the same speed, same angle. Stephen felt a purer terror grip him as he understood what was happening. Dormammu had gotten his hands on the Eye of Agamotto. He was using it to create the same hell for him that Stephen had once created to defeat the celestial. He was trapped in infinite time loops, forced to watch Toni as she fell.)_

  Toni opened the door to see Stephen thrashing in bed wildly, desperate whimpers and soft, harsh cries escaping him. She rushed to him immediately. "Stephen, Stephen, wake up. Wake up!" She shook his shoulder, trying to jolt him from his nightmare. It didn't work. His hands were flailing, trying to bat her away as he attempted to conjure a spell in his sleep. She snapped her fingers and Levi understood, flitting over and wrapping herself tightly around Stephen's arms to still them.

  The next second Toni was straddling his waist, a tight grip on his wrists even as she registered the words tumbling from Stephen's lips: "No, _please_ , stop! Please _stop_ , let her go! _Please_!"

  "STEPHEN!"

  _(He loathed his helplessness. A murderous rage flooded him as Dormammu ignored his pleas and laughed, a deep rumbling sound that shook the earth. Toni kept falling, again and again and_ again _, still screaming for help. He couldn't bear the sight anymore. He closed his eyes, trying to block out her voice, and-)_

  His eyes flew open and stared at her, wide and unblinking, fear evident in his sharp features.

  _Toni_. Toni was _fine_. She was looming above him, one hand holding his wrists to her arc reactor, the other at his shoulder. He could feel her knees digging into his hips, pinning him in place. "Toni!" He whispered.

  "Hey," she answered, concern marring her features. "Levi woke me up. You okay?"

  "Your hands are shaking," he said instead of replying, his attention drawn to the hand still attached to his.

  Toni gave a funny smile. "No, baby, yours are," she told him gently. "In fact, you're shivering all over."

  She was right, he noticed. Toni moved off him and he sat up after a struggle. For a long time, they both sat in silence.

  "Wanna talk about it?"

  "Not really."

  "Okay." She didn't press. He loved her for that, he decided. Then he banished the thought.

  "You wanna go back to sleep now?"

  "Definitely not." He knew he would have nightmares again if he did.

  "You want me to leave?" She peered up at him through her lashes as she asked, stroking her finger along the scars on the back of his hand.

' _No_!' he wanted to exclaim. ' _No! Don't leave, stay here, please. Stay where I know you're safe_.'

  "There's no need for you to stay here," he said instead, carefully and coolly. Toni hummed in response. Abruptly, she sank down into the pillows, pulling the covers to her.

  "Actually, I'm too knackered to walk back," she yawned as he stared down at her. "Mind if I crash here?"

  Stephen nodded slowly, mirroring her position as relief filled him. As soon as he was laying down beside her, she got into his space, tangling their legs and burrowing into his chest. He tried not to freeze up, tried not to enjoy the feel of her tiny frame pressed against him, just focused on the comfort she provided. He wrapped an arm around her waist, holding tightly so he wouldn't break down in tears of exhaustion and fear.

  If she felt the slight dampness in her hair, she didn't mention it.

  "I wake up early," she mumbled, her voice lost in his clothes. "So don't worry, I'll be gone by the morning."

  He hesitated with his answer, not wanting to admit any weakness. Then, steeling himself, he whispered, "I don't want you to be gone in the morning."

  She didn't answer, already unconscious to the world. Stephen sighed, prepared to stay awake the entire night to avoid any more nightly terrors. Instead, breathing in Toni's familiar scent, he drifted off within a few minutes.

 

* * *

 

  Toni did wake up early the next morning. She smiled slightly when she realized she was still cocooned in Stephen's protective embrace. Remembering his whispered, almost silent request, when he'd thought she was asleep, she made no move to get up and waited for Stephen to open his eyes instead.


	5. A Sister In All But Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Clint and Toni bonding time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JaneBonkers commented on Clint and Toni's friendship, and I've already got plans to fix the screw-up of Clint's character in CW, so this came out of it: a small insight into their relationship. It takes place just before IM 3.

  It drove him _mad_ ; the way they all stared at him, unsettled and uneasy, waiting for something to happen, waiting for him to attack. It caused a prickle under his skin, like there was something inside him raring to escape. And his own guilt didn't make it any easier to deal with, no matter what the therapist told him. He may have been mind-controlled, but it was still his hands that had killed so many agents. So many friends.

  Lost in his thoughts, he saw the kick coming too late and ended up on his back as his feet were swept out from under him.

  "Are you really,  _really_ okay?" Toni asked, looking down at him in concern, as she repeated the question she'd asked when he'd barged into the lab at 2 am and demanded she spar with him. "You're never this distracted. It usually takes a lot more effort for me to knock you down.

  Clint sighed and grasped her offered hand to pull her down as well. She came easily, sitting next to him with her legs stretched out.

  He'd been apprehensive of staying in the Tower first, preferring to be surrounded by familiar people at Shield. But the constant air of suspicion had been more than enough incentive to take Toni up on her offer. It had been almost entirely in vain. Steve was trying too hard, pretending the problem didn't exist and acting as normal as he could. It didn't help that he wasn't that great of an actor. And Natasha treated him like glass, always careful of saying the wrong thing, in _spite_  of being a good actor. He would have gone home, but if he was being truthful, he didn't quite trust himself yet.

  If it wasn't for Toni's careless bantering, which drove Cap and Tasha crazy, and Bruce's quiet understanding, he would have run for the hills, screaming as he went.

  "Clint?"

  He turned to her this time. "I feel strung out," he muttered. "Everyone thinks I'm some fucking China doll, even Nat. I'm not gonna break!"

  Toni hummed. "Wanna come with me to Malibu?" She offered. "I'm heading there for a while, I need a break. Bruce will still be here, but you can come if you think it'll help."

  "Why do you need a break? Didn't you already sign off your company to Pepper for running it?" He teased.

  She snorted. "She runs it; I own it. I get 65% of the shares. I'm still head of R&D. It's taxing. You'd know all this-" she cuffed his shoulder playfully. "-If Clive Baxter had actually paid attention to the job, not to me."

  Clint chuckled. "I never apologized for tricking you like that, did I?" He mused. "I mean, I know you'd known from almost the beginning, but still."

  Toni shrugged. "Well, at least, you didn't try to get me in bed. You respected me and that's the reason I held off on firing you when I found out."

  For a second, Clint considered telling her why he hadn't attempted seduction, about Laura. Then he decided against it. He trusted her, but you never knew when somebody was listening. Plus, Toni had a reputation of getting successfully kidnapped once every few years _('_ successfully _' being the key word)._

  Instead he said, "That's ironic, considering the last time I was part of an infiltration team, I made a joke about getting to seduce the rich guy next time."

  Toni smiled, open and interested. "Tell me."

  So Clint talked, regaling her with the experience of free-falling, relying only on magnets, jumping out of a bombed car, swimming underwater while being shot at. She listened attentively and by the time the sky was starting to lighten, he realized how much lighter and relaxed he felt.

  In the end, he didn't go to Malibu. Fury stuck him in Wolverhampton to tail a lead. He couldn't run back when he saw the footage of Toni's mansion crumbling and he nearly called for emergency extraction when he read " _Iron Woman presumed dead_ ". Only years of training kept him focused on his mission and he made a point to stay away from media as long as he was undercover.

  But when he returned to New York and found her alive and whole, it took a lot of time for him to let her out of his sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is Steve and Toni getting together.  
> And who spotted the out-of-universe reference?


	6. Expectations and Comparisons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place right after Avengers and way before IM 3.

  No matter how hard he tried, Steve couldn't quite stop seeing Peggy every time he looked at Toni. It wasn't even that they looked similar. Toni's eyes were a dark, wicked brown instead of gentle blue, her hair was a slightly different shade of brown with a hint of red, her lips fuller. If anything, she took after Howard in colouring, while her sharp bone structure spoke of her Italian heritage _(which completely justified her being ranked top on World's Most Attractive Women several times in a row, according to the tabloids he'd read)_. A world of difference, really, between her and Steve's best girl.

  But the first time they'd met, she'd exuded an air of competence and discipline that, despite her rudeness right before she left, had reminded him almost painfully of Peggy. The elegantly tied back bun, the professional clothing, the scarlet painted lips, the untouchable beauty; all of it had been reminiscent of his first impression of the British Agent who'd given most of the Howling Commandos a run for their money. He'd brushed off her one mocking remark as exhaustion after a busy day, just like Director Fury had suggested. He'd been excited to get to know her, determined to have one piece of his past back.

  Then Loki happened. Any good opinion Steve might have once had evaporated as he watched the footage and read the profile provided by Shield. He saw her drunken escapades in public, the disaster of a birthday party, so many scandals and affairs from such a young age. And he'd thought that Howard would have been ashamed of such a daughter. True, he'd been a bit scandalous himself, but as a man, it could be overlooked. For a dame to act in such a crass manner was unthinkable and disgraceful. The argument on the hellicarrier had simply solidified his opinion: Toni Stark was an arrogant and petty woman who only lived for herself. The kiss they'd shared before leaving for New York meant nothing.

  And of course, in typical Stark fashion, she'd forced Steve to re-evaluate _again_ by carrying a nuke through a wormhole without any guarantee of return. He hadn't thought much about it in the euphoria of victory; he'd been so relieved at Loki's defeat and Toni's survival that he'd even kissed her of his own accord, just a short peck that left him feeling like he'd betrayed Peggy.

  After clean-up of the Battle of New York, Steve struggled to define Toni somehow, as they all shared living space with the others. Sometimes, she was an exact mirror of Peggy, when he found her holding business negotiations over the phone, taking no nonsense whatsoever. Other times, it was Howard he thought of, when she'd talk tech and get all excited, or when she was busy pulling pranks with Clint. Whichever one she was in the moment, Steve could never take his eyes off her, eagerly drinking in the small pieces of memory. And finally, there were times when she seemed like a completely different person, all laid back and quiet with a cup of coffee in her hands. Steve never stopped watching in those moments either, not willing to miss anything.

  It was one such moment that things between them changed. Steve was absently sketching, watching Toni discreetly as she drank her fourth cup of coffee.

  "You gonna show me that drawing any time soon?"

  Steve started, then hurried to say, "No, I don't think so. Why should I?"

  Toni shrugged, taking a bite from her toast. "No reason. But then if you're going to make it a secret that you're sketching me, you wanna be more careful about it."

  Steve ignored how she knew he'd been staring at her and looked down at the sketchpad. She was halfway right. Somewhere down the line, his hands had moved to sketch what was in front of him, instead of from his mind. It was the likeness of Toni that smiled at him from the paper.

  "You know, you're different from what I expected," she went on.

  "How so?" Steve asked, curious.

  "From what Howard used to tell me, I used to imagine you were a stuck-up asshole with a God complex, who absolutely cannot tolerate disobedience to him." She paused for a second. "Actually, that's still not wrong. You really hate it when people dint follow your orders. Case in point being me, of course," she finished with a laugh.

  Steve chuckled as well. "Good to know you had such a high opinion of me. So, how am I defying your expectations?"

  Toni winked at him, a corner of her mouth lifting in a tempting, almost sensual smirk that was as familiar as it was new. And right then, Steve just knew what to do.

  "Well, for one thing," she drawled. "There's the fact that you're actually stupidly attractive."

  Heaven knew where he'd gotten the courage for it, but he leaned forward as soon as she finished speaking and kissed her. She responded immediately, her hands reaching to grip his shirt as he cradled her delicate jaw in his hand. Her mouth tasted of coffee and apricot jam, and he tried not to compare it to the time Peggy had kissed him: short and desperate, like he would never come back; which, to be fair, had been been an accurate prediction.

  Steve barely registered Clint's joyous yelp as he ran back out to inform everyone of the development. He swallowed Toni's annoyed groan and kept moving his lips in tandem to hers. _Maybe_ , he thought, maybe if he kissed her hard and long enough, she'd seem more like Peggy. That was all he really wanted anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _So_ , how're your feelings towards Rogers right now?


	7. The Mechanic Lady

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter wasn't the first kid Toni thought of as her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kinda long. Way too long to have been in the main story.

  Harley sometimes wished he didn't get attached so quickly to people, because they always left. It didn't matter how long they stuck around, or how many promises they made. Eventually, they got fed up and disappeared. After all, if his own mother could leave him, his father, and his sister, then why not everyone else? But in any case, he hadn't expected to get attached to a bossy billionaire with an attitude as obnoxious as his own.

 

* * *

 

 

  "Your barrel's a _little_ too long to bring up fast, don't you think?"

  Harley knew the strange woman was right, but he still demonstrated a shot and smirked up at her, only realising his mistake when she smugly said, "And now you're out of ammo." She'd played him.

  Then his eyes fell on the couch. " _Oh my God_!" he exclaimed in awe, reaching out to touch the armour. It was damaged badly, riddled with bullets, but it was still beautiful to look at. "Is that _Iron Woman_?"

  "...Yes."

  "But what are you...?" He trailed off, looking at the lady, really looking at her, and gasped when recognition struck him. "You're Toni Stark," he whispered with the reverence of a child meeting his hero. " _You're_. Iron. Woman."

  "Technically, yeah," she replied, a small smile making an appearance.

  But Harley remembered what the papers had been saying. "Technically, you're dead," he informed her flatly.

  She waved that away. "Good for me," she replied airily. "Now, what's your name, kid?"

  "Keener. Harley Keener."

  "What is this, James Bond? Okay, anyway, here's what I'm gonna need: a couple of electromagnets, a soldering rod, some soldering wire, resistors, screwdrivers, a watch and a tuna sandwich if you've got it. Also, where are your parents?"

  Harley blinked. This woman spoke as fast as he did and that was rare. It was weird. "Dad's out for bingo night with his friends," he answered absently. "My little sister, Lizzie, is in bed. Mom went out to gamble and drink. I'm assuming she had fun, because that was four years ago." Okay, _no_ , he hadn't meant to say _that_.

  Miss Stark's eyes flashed with understanding and apology. "Yeah, absent parents suck," she agreed. The nine year old wondered if there was some experience she was speaking from, but before he could ask, she said, "Ok, go get my stuff, you little human, chop chop wiki wiki."

  Harley scrunched his nose at the phrase. "What's in it for me?"

  Miss Stark paused and looked carefully at him, eyes sharp as she observed him from head to toe. Harley resisted the urge to squirm under her intent gaze and forced himself to look her in the eyes. "Retribution. What's his name?"

  "Whose?"

  "The kid who hit you."

  Harley didn't answer. Iron Woman was a hero and Toni Stark was an even bigger one. He wasn't about to admit to being beaten up everyday by some stupid jock just because he was smarter than the rest of them.

  "Doesn't matter," Miss Stark interrupted his thoughts. She pried open a small panel on the armour's right shoulder and tugged out what looked like a little penlight.

  "This is for discouraging bullies." She held it out to him. "See that little button? Point it away from your face and press it, it'll buy you time to get away. If I had more time, I'd teach you some actual self-defence, but..." She shrugged and jiggled it in front of him. "Now where's my sandwich?"

 

* * *

 

  "Aren't you done yet?" Harley yawned. "I wanna go to sleep."

  "Don't let me stop you," Miss Stark mumbled around the screwdriver between her teeth. "I'm gonna work the whole night, catch a few winks in the morning. Not like I can go out in the morning when I'm supposedly dead."

  "But you're not dead, supposedly or otherwise."

  The mechanic looked up from her work to glare at him. "That's the eighth pop culture reference you've made till now. Third reference to The Hobbit. If you don't stop-" she waved the hot soldering rod threateningly. "-I will not hesitate to poke you with this."

  Harley smirked innocently, then yawned again. "What if you run off with something if I leave you alone and go up to bed?"

  This time, Miss Stark rolled her eyes. "Kid, I'm a billionaire. Even if I did feel the need to steal something, I'll give it back once I get home, after I deal with this Mandarin guy."

  "What if you can't, though?" Harley asked, quietly. "What if you don't win?"

  "That's not an option."

  Harley drifted off to sleep easily after that. Somewhere he wondered why he felt so safe letting his guard down with a stranger in his garage, but he was too sleepy to care.

 

* * *

 

  "Let me go," Harley screamed, struggling against the man holding him from behind. He was awfully strong, almost inhumanly and Harley wondered if this had something to do with that _Extremis_ stuff Miss Stark had mumbling about for the last few days, whenever he took her around to all the bomb sites.

  Miss Stark froze up when she saw him, paling considerably. He knew she had an independent repulsor in her pocket that she would have clasped around her hand by now, but she couldn't fire it with him in the way.

  "You got something you wanna say, kid?" The man sneered. "Go on, it might be your last chance."

  "Miss Stark, I am so sorry," Harley cried, ignoring him. "I'm sorry, I tri-"

  "It's not your fault, kid," Miss Stark assured him. Harley grew silent, her confidence calming him. "Remember what I told you about bullies?"

  The metaphorical lightbulb lit up and Harley brought out the penlight. A brilliant light, powerful in its intensity, left searing flashes behind his eyes. It must have blinded the man, because he lost his hold on him, and he twisted away, scrambling to get to some semblance of safety. Just in time too, as Miss Stark said, "That's the thing about us smart kids: we've always got out asses covered." The sound of a repulsor beam filled the air.

 

* * *

 

  "You did good, kid," Miss Sta- _Toni_ \- had said, cradling the hand she'd burned from using the repulsor without an armoured glove. "I'm proud of- I mean, I'd _be_ proud of you, if you were my kid, but in any case, thank you."

  Harley had felt proud, no matter what Miss Sta- _Toni_ \- had said. For the first time, he was getting approval from someone who wasn't his father or sister, and as she got into her ' _borrowed_ ' car, giving him instructions on what to do with the suit and JARVIS, it occurred to him that he didn't want her to go. Cursing his inability to say goodbye, he bit his tongue and watched her leave _(though not before an attempt to accompany her)_. He cherished that proud feeling instead.

  Right now, though, he felt like shit, because for the second time in merely a week, he'd triggered a panic attack. Only this time, Toni was on the other end of the line, hyperventilating as he tried to talk her out of it.

  "Listen, Toni, just breathe, come on, breathe," he pleaded.

  "Oh God, what am I doing? What am I doing? I don't know how to do this..."

  "Toni, you can do this," Harley interrupted. "You can fix this, come on."

  " _Noooo_ , no I don't... I can't-"

  "That's not an option!"

  Hearing her own words thrown back at her did the trick. There was a hitch in her breath and then silence.

  "Toni?" He tried again. "You're a mechanic, right? You said that."

  "Yeah. Yeah, I did," Toni muttered, her breathing calmer now. "I am."

  "So..." Harley searched for something to say. "You can fix this, can't you?"

  "Yeah," she muttered. There was a focus brimming in her voice now. "Yeah, I can. Talk to you later, kid."

  The phone went dead and Harley looked to the suit of armour, where JARVIS was still uploading himself properly.

  "She's got this, right? She'll do it," he said.

  "Rest assured, Mr Keener," JARVIS answered. "Miss Stark will emerge Shakespearean."

  Okay, no, Harley needed to figure out how to fix that speech problem.

 

* * *

 

  It was almost a year since Toni had first shown up in Harley's garage. A year since he'd helped her deal with her panic attacks. A year of constant visits and impromptu phone calls whenever she got bored. It had been a slow growing friendship, with a lot of nicknames and compliments that were far too fond and far too proud on Toni's part. On Harley's side, there were way too many accidental hugs and slip-of-the-tongue pleas to stay a bit longer. But it worked and they grew close and comfortable enough to trust each other with secrets.

  Harley told her about the kid who beat him up. Toni taught him to protect himself and shared her fears of not being good enough for the people who trusted her. Harley was always there to assure her that she could never let him down and then would proceed to pester her with questions about the Avengers, pretending he liked them better than her. Which was a complete lie; Iron Woman was the coolest.

  Harley's dad took time to warm up to her, after the initial freakout that his son was secretly friends with a billionaire. But he saw how happy Harley was after those visits and ultimately decided that as long as they weren't in any danger, Toni was good for him. Lizzie, on the other hand, _adored_ Toni.

  "Left foot front, plant it down firmly and twist."

  Harley followed the instructions slowly and succeeded in escaping Toni's hold.

  "Very good," Toni smiled, as Lizzie clapped from the couch. "Ready to take a break?"

  Harley nodded, flushed and panting. Toni was a relentless teacher, but way better than anyone at school. Both of them collapsed on the couch, Toni ending up between the siblings. Lizzie immediately burrowed under her arm with the stubbornness that only six year old kids possessed, making Toni chuckle as she planted a small kiss on her fair head.

  It was only a small pang of envy that Harley felt at how Lizzie could easily show her affections without any fear. She didn't even remember having a mother and Toni was just so easy to lov- _like_. Harley, though, couldn't stop worrying. What if Toni left too? Then again, she'd been around for a year and still greeted them with the same amount of enthusiasm every time.

  After a moment of consideration, he copied Lizzie, relaxing into Toni's side. Her arm came up around him after a moment and he could feel her smile as she kissed the top of his head too, almost too light for him to feel it. But he did feel it and he closed his eyes with a smile of his own.

  She wasn't going anywhere, he decided. After all, Toni was a hero; she wouldn't hurt them. She wouldn't hurt him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I changed it just a bit, to make it so that Toni stayed with Harley for a couple days at least. So what do you think?


	8. It Feels Like Forgiveness (Part I)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pepper just really needs to see her best friend, okay? Preferably before said best friend drives herself off the metaphorical cliff out of misplaced guilt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda short, not really needed. I just thought we needed some interaction with Pepper, Rhodey and Bruce.

  "How are you feeling?"

  Pepper smiled up at Happy's concerned face. "I'm fine," she said honestly. "For someone just out of surgery, I actually feel pretty great."

  "Strange's ex-girlfriend was your surgeon," he informed her and Pepper nodded.

  "I know. Christine Palmer. She's nice."

  "Hmm."

  They sat in companionable silence for a while. Pepper, though, really wanted to know why her best friend wasn't at her bedside. Happy must have read the question on her face, because he gave her a sad smile. "Toni's waiting outside. She said she didn't want to crowd you as soon as you were awake, but really, I think she's just blaming herself for what happened to you."

  Pepper sighed. "Just what I thought, then," she said. "Send her in, please?"

  Happy gave her a quick kiss and left the room. Within a minute, the door reopened and Toni shuffled in. She looked nervous and lost. She was shorter than Pepper on a good day. Right now, with several bandages and in a hospital gown that she was practically swimming in, she looked tiny and Pepper had the urge to bundle her into her arms and hide her away. She resisted only because Toni would snarl viciously and back away.

  Thankfully, Pepper was an expert in Toni-ology.

  "You're being stupid," were the first words out of her mouth and Toni flinched, coming to a stop at her side, standing just out of Pepper's reach.

  "I'll try to stop," she mumbled and Pepper tried her best not to sigh. Instead, she extended a slim hand in a silent gesture.

  Toni stared at it for a few seconds, before taking it, almost painfully shy, and allowed herself to be pulled into the hospital bed, where she carefully arranged herself around Pepper, so she wasn't hurting her.

  "You know, I don't blame you, right?" Pepper tried to confirm it, mumbling into Toni's hair.

  "Well, you should," was the petulant answer.

  "No!" Pepper shot back firmly. She pushed Toni away a bit, so she could see her face. Her mouth was pulled down into a minuscule frown and there was a furrow between her eyes that said she really didn't understand how she wasn't to blame.

  "You saved me," Pepper reminded her. "You came there, without any guarantee of your suits arriving in time, and you fought them all just to get to me."

  "I let you fall." The soft horror in Toni's voice was heartbreaking.

  "You're a genius, Toni," Pepper said. "Think back and tell me yourself; was it physically possible for you to catch me? Why do you think I refused to let go?"

  Toni shifted, her eyes losing their focus as she recalled those terrifying moments, when Pepper had been trapped upside down, dangling over a hundred foot drop, and Toni had had an arm outstretched, just a couple inches short of pulling her to safety.

  "It was impossible," Toni finally answered softly. Then her eyes hardened again. "But I'm still the reason you got taken in the first place, Pep. You're just too close to me."

  "Well, even if you fire me, I'm not leaving," Pepper reiterated just as stubbornly.

  "Pepper," Toni pleaded. "You're not safe. I can't always be right next to you to-"

  "Build me a suit, then."

  "-and what if next time I'm not- _what_?!"

  "Build me a suit," Pepper repeated, a little softer.

  Toni gaped at her, uncomprehending. "You're serious? You're. Serious."

  Pepper didn't answer and after a minute of observing her with a calculating eye, Toni nodded, slow and a little relieved. "Okay. Okay, I'll start working on it soon as I'm out of this place."

  Pepper smiled at Toni and the brunette smiled back, still a little uncertain, still with a hint of guilt swimming in her dark eyes. It would take time, Pepper knew, but she'd get rid of it soon enough.


	9. It Feels Like Forgiveness (Part II)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey and Toni talk.

  Rhodey stood his ground firmly as Steve tried his best to stare him down. "I don't care if you're her boyfriend, Captain," he spoke. As an army man, Rhodey had the utmost respect for the legendary soldier. But he'd be damned if Rogers made him wait to see his best friend. "Toni's like my sister, has been for 25 years. I am going in first. You can have your turn after me." _'If Strange doesn't get here early,'_ he added internally.

  Steve opened his mouth to say something, but Dr Christine Palmer stepped out. "She's perfectly stable, Colonel," she said, her professional tone giving no indication that the two of them, Toni, Stephen, Pepper, Happy and Wong had met up for pasta just a couple weeks ago, before Toni's mansion blew up. "You're welcome to go see her now."

  Rhodey didn't give Steve time to protest before slipping in. Once inside, he walked over to the figure on the bed and glared down at her.

  "Um- hi?"

  "One word," Rhodey hissed. "One word was all I would have needed to request a few weeks off duty. One word, so I could have known to be there with you."

  Toni cringed, her eyes fluttering rapidly with guilt. "I didn't want you to worry," she mumbled.

  It took an inhuman amount of restraint for Rhodey to not scream. "Because I wasn't worried when Stephen called me up to tell me that you'd threatened a terrorist on television and that you were presumed dead and on the run on a solo fucking mission, which was basically a suicide trip."

  The sarcasm in his voice was enough. "I'm sorry," Toni whispered. She looked pale and weak and small, and Rhodey sighed. Even in MIT, he'd never been able to be angry at Toni for long.

  Wrapping an arm around her, mindful of her sore body, he said, "I never know with you, these days, you know. Sometimes, you're actively dying and refuse to tell anyone, or you decide it's a good idea to carry a fucking nuke through a wormhole, or provoke a serial bomber. Just..." He paused, taking a frustrated breath. "Just _stop_. _Please_. You don't owe anyone anything, sugar."

  "The world would disagree, honey bear," Toni protested softly.

  "The world? Or just the dicks who think they're so much better than you?"

  Toni remained silent and he knew she'd actually listened to him. Gently, he pulled her a little closer and pressed a kiss to her hair.

  "I'm going to get you into therapy," he stated and he felt Toni smile into his chest.

  "Thank you," was the answer.


	10. It Feels Like Forgiveness (Part III)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hulk and Toni have a talk. Natasha gets punched.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never tried writing Hulk before. So I'm not too happy with this chapter.

  Hulk was bored. He'd never liked being alone, but there was no choice now. The puny human in his head refused to come out, but he'd strictly ordered Hulk not to venture away from the jet. He stayed up there in his head, whining and complaining about how he'd made too many mistakes and couldn't go back to his friends. _Friend_.

  Hulk didn't understand. He was sorry for smashing Tin Girl, but it was not his fault. Little Witch had done something to him and he'd lost control. He remembered Tin Girl had tried to make him listen, but he couldn't. So now, that he could, surely Tin Girl would listen, right? She liked Hulk, she was his friend. Hulk was tempted to go to her anyways, but he was afraid that Banner would be too angry with him. Last time Banner was angry, he had not allowed Hulk to come out for so long. So he tried his best to stay quiet.

  But now there was a very familiar noise. Hulk looked up from his spot on the ground to see Tin Girl flying above him. "Hey there, big guy," she called out, hovering in front of him. Hulk let out a pleased growl.

  "Tin Girl."

  "Why haven't you come back yet, baby?" She asked.

  Hulk scowled. "Banner says _no_ ," he grit out.

  Tin Girl landed on the ground. "Can you let Bruce come out, please?"

  Hulk paused, silently waiting for Banner's answer. He shook his head sadly. "Banner says no. Too angry. Too scared. Too sad."

  Tin Girl suddenly opened up and Friend Toni stepped out. She raised her arms up and immediately Banner yelled inside his head - _ **Don't you dare touch her, you fool. You'll hurt her**_.-

  Hulk paused, his hand outstretched. "Hulk hurt Toni?" He rumbled, his head tilted in question.

  Toni shook her head. "Maximoff screwed with your head, Green Man," she said firmly. "You would never hurt me."

  Hulk hesitated, then, ignoring Banner's protests, he lifted Toni with two fingers and a thumb around her middle, before placing her on the palm of his other hand. "Banner thinks Hulk hurt Toni," he complained, bringing her close to his face.

  Toni frowned and glared at him. "Well, tell Bruce to shut up," she snapped. Then she softened. "Do you want to come back with me?"

  Hulk huffed, the gust of his breath jostling Toni's hair. "Banner doesn't trust Spider."

  Toni frowned more. "What did she do?"

  Hulk hesitated again. "She distracted Banner. Pushed him. Hulk came out." He paused. "Hulk doesn't trust Spider, either." It felt like a confession.

  Toni was thinking. After a while, she said, "Can you promise you'll stay safe if I leave you here?"

  Hulk nodded.

  "Alright," Toni sighed. "I can't force you to come back and protecting Bruce is your priority. If he doesn't feel safe back there, you're probably better off here. I'll keep an eye on you," she promised. "No one will be able to find you except me. Just don't let anyone see you, buddy, okay?"

  Hulk nodded and Toni leaned forward to press a small kiss on his nose. "Come back soon, Bruce," she whispered. Then, the suit flew up around her and Tin Girl took off. "Stay safe, Big Green!" She called out and Hulk watched her fly away, already feeling lonely again.

- _ **You're mean**_ \- he told Banner.

- _ **It's for her own good**_.-

- ** _I like Toni more than Banner_**.-

Banner chuckled sadly in his head. - _ **I like Toni more than myself too**_.-

 

* * *

 

  Natasha was in the training room with Wanda, when Steve's voice came over the speakers. "Nat, Toni's here. Says she wants to talk to you."

  Natasha frowned. Why would Stark want to talk to her? "Keep practising," she instructed Wanda. The young girl nodded and she made her way to the sitting room. They were waiting for her obviously, judging by the way they were all standing in a circle. Well, Steve, Sam and Vision were loosely arranged around Stark, who had a slightly bored expression on her face.

  "Toni," she greeted cordially.

  "Natasha," the brunette returned, walking towards her. The blankness in her eyes was replaced by sudden fury when they were inches apart. Natasha didn't have time to react before a solid punch snapped her head to the side.

  " _TONI_!"

  "Nat?!"

  Both women ignored the cries of surprise and glared at each other. Years of training was the only thing keeping Natasha from retaliating. Instead, she narrowed her eyes at the arrogant genius, holding her aching jaw. Stark used to spar with Clint, she recalled.

  "That, you little backstabbing bitch, was for betraying Bruce's trust," Stark snarled. Natasha's eyes widened. She had not been expecting that. She hadn't told anyone about how she'd gotten the Hulk to come out for the battle in Sokovia.

  "You know where he is." It was a fact, not a question.

  Stark smirked cruelly. "Yes. He told me what happened himself," she taunted. "And no, I'm not going to tell you. He doesn't want to see you."

  Natasha refused to flinch, but the words hurt. She'd thought Bruce would understand, but she ought to have known it was wishful thinking. She'd kissed him and then shoved him off a cliff, to drag him into a battle he hadn't wanted to be a part of. Of course, he didn't want to see her.

  Stark turned to Steve. "Steve, I love you, but I also know how good the Black Widow is at manipulation. She'd have the location out of you before you knew what was going on. So I'm not telling you either. When he comes back-" she shot a glare at Natasha. " _If_ he comes back, you can ask him then."

  Not giving any of them time to recover from their shock, she stalked out of the room. A minute later, the sound of the Iron Woman suit taking off could be heard.

  Steve left to get first aid for her, bit Natasha was left in her thoughts. Bruce would come back, she told herself. He'd come back and he'd understand. Stark was wrong. He _would_ come back. For _her_ , if nothing else. _He'd come back_.


	11. To Tell Or Not To Tell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> May finds out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometime between AoU and CW.

  May was still feeling jittery when Peter came home.

  "Hey, May, what's up?"

  "Nothing dear, how was school?"

  "Uh, same old."

  She hated lying to him, but after having hid it from him for so long, it couldn't possibly be a good idea to spring it on him that she personally knew Toni Stark. Not only that, but also that she was his godmother.

  She could simply ignore the message on her phone. It would be easier. But, the genius had been a good friend of Richard, Mary and Ben, plus May knew she'd quietly helped them out many times when they were financially troubled. It wouldn't do to ignore this.

  Listening to the sounds of Peter moving around in his bedroom, May picked up her phone and read the message again: ' _Can we meet up sometime this week? It's kinda urgent that we talk._ '- A

  Biting her lip, she typed out a date, place and time in reply then looked up at Peter re-entering the room just as she pressed send.

  "I'm not going to be gone tomorrow till late evening," she told him. "I'm going over to Staten Island."

  "Staten Island?" He gave her a quizzical look. "Why?"

  "An old friend is in town," she said. "Ben and your parents introduced us when we got married. She says she'd like to catch up."

  Peter frowned. "What's her name?"

  May hesitated. "Annie," she said. "Annie... Carbonell." It wasn't quite a lie; she'd been introduced to May as Annie, her childhood name that the Parkers still called her by. And her mother's maiden name had been Carbonell, which Annie had hyphenated with Stark as soon as she could. It wasn't a well-known fact.

  Peter's face lit up with excitement. "That Annie?" He pointed at a photo on the mantel. It showed his parents and Ben, much younger, with a twenty years old brunette with a wide smile and too bright eyes between them. A child; unrecognisable from the world famous icon she was now.

  "Can I meet her?" He continued. "Mom and dad knew her when she was my age, she might know something about them."

  May swallowed. "Maybe another time, buddy. She said she just wanted to see me."

  Peter nodded. He never questioned her. But then he looked back at the photo. "Are you sure I've never met her?" He asked. "Because she's always looked so familiar."

  ' _Yeah, because she's a superhero and your celebrity crush_ ,' May thought sarcastically.

  "I'm sure, Pete," she said instead.

 

* * *

 

  "It's good to see you, May," Annie said. They were sitting on a bench, looking out at the ocean, the Statue of Liberty standing tall behind them.

  "It's good to see you too, Ann," May answered honestly. "But you didn't call me here to chat." She turned to the slightly older woman, dressed as causal as possible with a wide-brimmed hat over her eyes, and raised an eyebrow. "Something's wrong."

  Annie sighed. "What do you know about Spiderman?"

  May felt her brow furrow. "That vigilante/superhero swinging around Queens? Only what the papers say."

  Annie tapped her watch. Much to May's fascination, a small holographic video popped up of a figure in ill-fitting pants and hoodie, with the emblem of a spider stitched across it. "I need you not to freak out, okay?"

  Of course, May began freaking out immediately. "This hasn't got anything to do with Peter, right?" She asked, her voice high-pitched. Annie nodded gravely. "What, you mean, Peter knows who this is?"

  "I wish that's what it was," Annie grumbled. She shut the hologram off and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, bracing her. "May, Peter _is_ Spiderman."

  May felt her breath get knocked out of her. "How?" She whispered.

  Annie shrugged helplessly. "I don't know yet. I've been keeping an eye out for Enhanced people and this guy showed up. I found street camera footage and had FRIDAY- my AI- run voice recognition with everyone in Queens. Peter was the highest match."

  May started shaking. She didn't want to believe it. It couldn't be true. But... Somehow, she knew it was. It would explain the sudden increase in bruises and the growing secretiveness. " _I'm going to kill him_ ," she all but growled. "Why didn't he tell me?"

  "Why do you think?" Annie asked quietly.

  May stilled. "He's protecting me," she realized. Annie nodded and May turned to her. "Annie, what do I do?" She begged.

  Annie hesitated. "I can keep him safe," she offered. "There's no way to stop him, you know that. He's too much like Mary. But I can make sure he's better protected. I can train him."

  May blinked, trying to keep away the tears forming in her eyes. "And how much do we tell him about...?" She waved a hand towards Annie's person.

  Annie looked away, but May caught the guilty longing in her eyes. "That's your decision," she muttered.

  May thought about it. Annie was right. She knew Peter well enough to know that if she tried to stop him, he wouldn't listen. And Annie could keep him safe. But, did that mean Peter should find out about their relation? She knew how badly Annie wanted to be in Peter's life, even if she'd wholeheartedly supported the decision to stay away. But that had been twelve years ago. So much had changed. But still...

  "We don't tell him yet," May decided. "I don't want to spring it on him. But someday..."

  Annie nodded. "Someday," she agreed. "But I think it's best if you pretend to be in the dark about it all. There's no need for him to be constantly worried about you every time he goes out. We'll tell him you know someday, but not now."

  "Someday," May echoed, then sighed. "Come over this weekend."

  Annie nodded and they both sat in silence as the sun set over the waters.


	12. Revenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wanda, you stupid, delusional, little bitch...

  Wanda watched the meetings with only half a mind. Most of her focus was on the brown-eyed she-devil standing in the middle of the room, chatting with everyone as she explained some legal jargon to the rest of the Avengers.

  Her heart was filled with crushing grief as she thought of Pietro. He would have liked this place. It was large, open, plenty of space for him to run around. She'd only been here a few months and it was already home to her. He would have felt the same surely. She missed him. Missed him with an ache that was bone-deep.

  But at least, she was in the perfect position to exact the revenge they had yearned for since being orphaned.

  Keeping her hands behind her back to hide the telltale red, she twirled her fingers slowly, confident that everyone was too busy to notice what she was doing.

  Stark's mind was strong, resilient, but she'd already manipulated it once. She knew her deepest fears, her regrets. Filling her head with self-disgust, hatred and paranoia was only too easy. Too bad she couldn't work quicker. Stark only came by the Compound once every month. It wouldn't do to drive her to suicide immediately. Anybody with a little sense would suspect her, seeing as she made no effort to hide her loathing of the woman. If she stayed with them, it would be easier. She'd be able to work a little magic on her everyday.

  But Wanda was also quite grateful that Stark didn't stay with them. She didn't exactly want to be subjected to seeing her everyday and wasn't very sure she would have been able to hold back from doing something very drastic.

  Also, being here all the time meant Stark would have had the suit nearby. For some reason, Wanda had found that the suit was resistant to any direct effect of her magic, thus protecting the wearer. She wasn't sure, but she suspected it had something to do with the battery powering it. _Arc reactor,_ they called it?

  No matter. This was enough. Hiding the cruel glee she felt, Wanda continued planting words into Stark's subconscious: _Waste. Useless. Pathetic. Dangerous._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is Peter and Toni...


	13. I Can't Risk Going Wrong With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, Toni and Peter meet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm not sure how this chapter is exactly?

  For as long Peter could remember, he'd been an avid admirer of Toni Stark. Ned teased him, saying he was a typical fanboy, and Peter couldn't honestly disagree, no matter how vehemently he denied it. _(Bringing up Ned's crush on Robert Downey Jr usually put a stop to the teasing)._

  So, _technically_ , when he saw the bright orange Audi parked on his street, it should have been obvious who it belonged to, even if he didn't glance at the licence plate _(the_ Stark 555 _written on it would have been a dead giveaway if he had)._ But really, who would guess that a genius superhero was currently in your little neighborhood? Let alone your own apartment.

  So Peter could do nothing but gape as Toni Stark moved around his little bedroom like she belonged there. "Cool, cool," she muttered. "Retro tech, huh? You build this yourself? Where'd you get the materials for this?"

  "Dumpster diving," Peter answered dazedly, trying to figure stuff out. He hadn't applied for the September Foundation Grant.

  "So I've got a quick question for you. Completely rhetorical, you don't have to answer." At his nod, she held up a slim screen, emitting a holographic display. "That's you, right?"

  Peter's blood went cold when he realized what the video was showing: _Spiderman_.

  "I mean, look at that." Miss Stark whistled lightly. "3,000 pounds, 40 miles an hour; that's a hell of a catch." She slipped the screen back in her pocket. "You've got some pretty mad skills."

  _How does she have that video_? Peter thought wildly. It was way too clear to be phone camera footage and there hadn't been any media at the scene yet. So how...?

  "But that's... That's all on YouTube, though, right?" He tried to say, hoping she didn't notice how he'd glanced towards his hiding spot. "I mean, that's how they're doing it," he went on, not quite sure of what he was saying as he walked past Miss Stark to the window. "It's not real-"

  "Sure, sure." It sounded unbelievably smug and Peter turned in apprehension to see Miss Stark had caught his furtive glances at the ceiling. He dashed forward to grab the jumpsuit and stash it in the little alcove between the door and the cupboard. As he turned around slowly, he realised his mistake: he'd moved _way_ too fast in his hurry to hide the clothes.

  "So you're Spiderman, yeah?"

  Peter sighed. "Yeah," he admitted. "I am. I'm Spiderman." He moved past her to sit on the bed.

  "You know what's really amazing?" Miss Stark tossed the webbing canister. He caught it without looking; there wasn't exactly any point in hiding. "That webbing. The tensile strength is off the charts. You manufactured it?"

  "Yeah."

  Surprisingly, or maybe not, she seemed more impressed with that than anything else. And maybe, a little part of him was pleased that she was impressed. "And what's the deal with those eye-pieces? How can you even see?"

  Peter shrugged. "Ever since the bite, my senses are kind of dialled to eleven. I can deal with it, normally, but in... In, like, high-stress situations, it's distracting. The dark lenses help filter it out, lets me focus."

  Miss Stark frowned a bit. "We're gonna come back to that bite, later," she said. "But right now, I've got two more questions for you. First: who else knows?"

  "Nobody."

  "Not even your extremely hot aunt?" She pressed.

  "Oh God, _no_ ," Peter gave a slightly panicked laugh. "She'd freak out. Then _I'd_ freak out."

  "Fair enough," she conceded. "Second question." She narrowed her eyes at him, the casualness suddenly falling away to a hard seriousness. "Why are you doing this?"

  Peter paused. He didn't want to answer; it required too much honesty. But he'd been dying to talk about it for so long now. Surely Miss Stark could only help him. "I've been _me_ my whole life," he said softly. "And now I've had these powers for six months. And because of that, I can't do all the regular things other kids do, like play football. I mean I can, obviously, but I shouldn't. Because I couldn't before. But I can do _something_. I can... If I can help people..." He sucked in a breath, trying to put his thoughts into words. "When you can do the things I can, but you don't, and then the bad things happen, they happen because of you."

  She had a small smile now. Was it his imagination, or did she look... Proud?

  "So you're just looking out for the little guy?" She summed up. "Doing your part to make the world a better place?"

  "Yeah, yeah," Peter agreed, relieved she understood. "I'm just... Being the friendly neighborhood helper."

  Miss Stark suddenly scoffed, the playfulness coming back. "Not in that onesie, you're not," she chided. It almost sounded like she was talking to a kid and that was _so_ not on. Spiderman or not, he was fourteen not four.

  "It's not a onesie," Peter grumbled.

  "You are in dire need of an upgrade," she announced, pushing off the wall and completely ignoring him. "Systematic, top to bottom, the whole works. That's why I'm here. Come on, grab a bag, pack for a couple days, let's go."

  "Go where?" Peter leapt up, confused. What did she mean by upgrade? Surely she didn't mean...

  "Stark Tower," Miss Stark answered, like it was obvious. "My lab."

  Oh. _Oh_. She did mean that. Peter felt a rush of giddiness as he realized what was happening. _Control, Parker_ , he told himself. Trying to maintain since composure, he stammered, "I can't just come with you."

  "Why not?"

  "Because... I've... Got homework." He wanted to slap himself when Miss Stark turned blank brown eyes on him.

  "You did not just say you've got homework," she stated flatly and Peter gave up. Toni Stark had just invited him to her labs, he was allowed to get excited about it.

"What do we tell Aunt May?"

 

* * *

 

  It was surreal, Toni decided. Having Richard and Mary's son in her lab was surreal. She had never, in her wildest dreams, expected it to happen.

  But it had.

  "Step on to that plate," she instructed. Peter obeyed immediately, positioning himself on the raised platform where Toni made everyone stand while making their uniforms.

  "Ok, raise your hands," she ordered and watched the computer screen as the sensors on the plate, calibrated for the barest of pressure changes, and the cameras around the lab captured every facet, every angle of Peter's body. She kept him going through several different positions and he followed her instructions silently. It should have been easy to forget who it was exactly she was working with. She was usually so immersed in her work that she sometimes forgot she even had company.

  But she couldn't. She kept watching Peter out of the corner of her eye. There was a curious and wondrous expression on his face. It was too familiar. It was the same look she knew she wore whenever she found something knew. The same look that Richard would have when he talked to her about his research.

  And the kid had no idea.

  _Don't get too attached, Stark_ , she warned herself. There was no telling if May would ever give the greenlight for telling Peter about her. She might never have any sort of closeness with him beyond that of a mentor and protégé.

  "Alright, you've got May's permission to stay the weekends at the Tower," she said, swinging her chair around to look at him. "We'll start your training in the evening. Your floor's right below mine, I'll take you there now. Your suit will be ready by Sunday night and-"

  "Hold on, hold on, woah, wait, _hold on_!" Peter made a time out motion with his hands. "Did you just say _train_? You're going to _train_ me?" He looked positively gleeful now, with a hint of incredulity.

  Toni chuckled. She'd originally planned to have him train under Steve and Romanoff but... That meant leaving him at the Compound. Toni really, really didn't want Peter anywhere near Maximoff or the Widow. She didn't want them to even know about him. Maybe it was a little selfish, but a small part of her also wanted to just have Peter to herself for a while. Pepper, Happy, Rhodey and Stephen knew. That was enough. "Yeah, kid," she assured him. "You might be Enhanced, but that means shit if you ever go up against somebody similar. So yes, I'll be training you."

  "Iron Woman is training me," he whispered, his brown eyes wide in awe.

  "Who knows, maybe I'll even rope in Rhodey," Toni added nonchalantly.

  "War Machine!" He whispered again, his eyes growing even wider, impossibly. "That's _so cool_." Then abruptly, he straightened, clearing his throat. "I mean, thank you, Miss Stark. That's really amazing. Um, yeah, thank you."

  Toni stifled another chuckle at his attempted act of maturity and crooked a finger at him. "Follow me, Spider-ling."

  "Best. Day. Ever." By the way it was whispered, Toni assumed she wasn't supposed to hear that.

  As they left the lab, Toni silently hoped that Richard and Mary were watching. _I promise I won't ever let him get hurt_ , she prayed. _Just give me a chance. I'll become good for him._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know a lot of you were waiting for this meeting, so I'm really sorry if I didn't quite do it justice.


	14. Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anybody wanted to see the Rescue armour...

  Pepper was exhausted. Her whole right arm was aching from learning to fire the gauntlet. She wasn't sure how she would be able to handle the whole suit. Sure, she'd worn it once before, but that had been a spur of the moment thing and JARVIS had been doing most of the work anyways. Now, though, Toni was walking her through operating the suit without any assistance. _And it was killing her_.

  "Okay, I think you're ready," Toni observed, glancing from Pepper to the target practice mannequins.

  Pepper perked up instantly. "Really?"

  "Yeah." Toni beamed proudly. "Come on up, let's go."

  Excited, Pepper followed Toni up to the penthouse, where she also had her lab. Toni hopped up on a table and asked her to retract the gauntlets. She did so and Toni brought up a holographic display. It was a suit in the same colours as Iron Woman, but much slimmer, without any visible weaponry. It looked almost delicate, like a precious sculpture, but knowing Toni, it was probably hard as diamond.

  "It looks beautiful," Pepper gushed. "How long is it gonna take you to make?"

  Toni pouted, pressing a hand to her heart. "I can't believe you're asking me that, Peps." The pout turned into a wicked smirk and she held out a pair of slim gold bands, which Pepper snapped around her wrists. The metallic sheen didn't escape her notice. Nor did the small stone, in a very familiar shade of blue, embedded in each one of them.

  Toni pointed to the band on her left wrist. "Tap the stone twice." She did.

  Immediately, the wrist bands whirred to life and opened up forming metal gloves over both her hands extending half-way to her elbow.

  "You won't always have the suit with you, so this something that stays on you all the time," Toni said. "Now, snap your left hand fingers." She did and the gloves folded back into the bands. "Okay, now press the right one."

  Nothing could have prepared Pepper for what happened when she pressed the stone on the left band.

  A glass display, one of the many that held Toni's suits, opened up. Like clockwork, red and gold metal plates flew towards her at an incredible speed, latching onto her body and fitting itself up her legs and around her waist, down her torso and then wrapping over her head. A silver HUD came to life in front of Pepper's eyes.

" _Good afternoon, Miss Potts_ ," a male Texan voice said in her ear, startling a laugh out of her.

"That's FAWKES," Toni told her, watching with a smile as she turned slowly in the armour. She'd been right. It was much lighter than Toni's armour. It was obviously not meant for power, but for speed and agility.

  "This is amazing," she breathed out.

  "It's not outfitted with any weapons except the repulsor beams," Toni informed her. "It's not meant to be something to fight in, more for flight and evacuation."

  "I'm glad," Pepper said sincerely. She didn't want to fight, but the idea of being able to defend herself was reassuring.

  "It's reinforced enough to protect you from bullets and small missiles, but don't go around blowing any tanks. It can carry three people of average weight. It tops out at just below sonic speed, so you can come very close to breaking the sound-"

  Pepper grabbed her in a hug, mindful of how much stronger the armour made her, cutting off her needlessly nervous rambling. "It's perfect," she whispered, filled with gratitude.

  "I hope you never have to use it," Toni mumbled.

  "But if I do, it'll be unbreachable."

  "Damn right." Toni paused, adjusting to wrap her own arms around her metal-clad shoulders. "I was thinking of calling it Rescue," she offered timidly.

  "I think that sounds great," Pepper agreed. They stayed silent for a while, protectively holding onto each other. Then Pepper cleared her throat shyly. "Can I go for a spin?

  Toni pulled back, grinning again. "I thought you'd never ask."


	15. A Promise To Be Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aunt Peggy.

  "She's awake. But she hasn't had an attack in two days, so she might have one today."

  Toni nodded grimly and dismissed the nurse. Taking a deep breath, she steeled herself in case of disappointment and stepped in. Her relief and happiness was palpable when the woman inside turned to her with a smile.

  "Annie," Aunt Peggy chuckled and crooked a finger at her. Toni approached hesitantly, before abruptly burying her face in her godmother's hair.

  "Hey Pegs."

  "So, what brings me my favourite niece after... Oh, I don't know, almost eight months?" Peggy questioned.

  "Sorry, Pegs, I got real busy and just couldn't find the time," she replied, blushing. Then she perked up. "Hey, you called me your favourite. Wait till Sharon finds out!"

  Peggy rolled her eyes in good nature. "You're only my favourite as long as you're here," she told her primly and Toni grinned at her. Then Peggy asked, "Have you told Steve yet?"

  Her face fell. "No," she muttered.

  "Why?" Peggy raised an eyebrow and Toni averted her eyes. After all, she'd learned that eyebrow trick from this very person. Come to think of it, several of her mannerisms were picked up from her godmother.

  "It's difficult," she grumbled. "Have you ever tried telling the guy you're marrying that he was in love with with your godmother once? It's not easy."

  "That's possibly because you haven't actually tried yet, dear, just kept putting it off." She paused and her eyes widened. "Did you say ' _marrying_ '?"

  "Umm... No?"

  "Annie Evelyn Stark," Peggy intoned sternly. "Spit it out. Now."

  "He proposed," Toni blurted out, then waved a hand around. "Right after the whole Ultron debacle."

  Peggy's face split in a wide smile and it was all too easy to picture her as the vibrant pioneer of espionage and diplomacy she was.

  "He makes you happy then? Are you _sure_?" She pressed when Toni nodded in response.

  "He's everything I've ever wanted, Pegs," Toni said softly. "Everything."

  "Sometimes, we don't always know exactly what we want," Peggy cautioned.

  Toni laughed, a bit wondering. "Well, Steve makes me happy. Really, truly happy," she assured.

  Peggy let out a long breath. "Good," she sighed. "Now, can you do something for me, love?"

  "Of course, anything."

  "Bring him with you," Peggy requested. "I won't be able to get out of this bed to attend the wedding, but I want to see you two together once. Just once."

  "Peggy-"

  "Please Toni. This is important to me. I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't."

  Toni bit her lip and nodded reluctantly. "I'll tell him," she promised.

  "And no procrastinating," the elderly woman scolded. "I haven't really got much time left."

  Immediately, Toni scowled. "Don't say that," she reprimanded. "You're not going anywhere for another twenty years. At _least_."

  Peggy chuckled lightly. "We'll see, darling, we'll see."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this takes place a more before Civil War. Right after this, Toni gets busy with the Accords, so obviously, she's not able to keep her promise.  
> Anyway, we've got Harley and Peter next...


	16. The Envy Of A Child

  Three months. Three months of living the dream. Peter had been spending every weekend, from Friday evening to Monday morning, at Stark Tower, having met Miss Potts, Colonel Rhodes, Mr Happy and Dr Strange _(he still wasn't completely convinced that was his real name)_. Iron Woman had gotten some sort of immunity for Spiderman with the government. Aunt May was safe and had no idea. He had an awesome new suit, custom made by Miss Stark. So, all in all, he was good. _Great_ , in fact. Except this weekend.

  Because this weekend, he was being sent home Saturday night itself. Because Miss Stark apparently had somewhere else to be.

  "Where are you going exactly?" Peter asked with a curious frown.

  She looked up from her phone with a smile. "Tennessee. Got a friend to see."

  "Who?"

  Before she could answer, the phone in her hand started to ring. Slightly annoyed because he didn't get an answer, Peter turned to look out the window at the passing streets, so he missed the slight widening of Miss Stark's smile. But he stiffened when he heard her greet the person at the other end of the line with a "Hey, kiddo."

  He turned back to look at her with an incredulous stare. The genius was still smiling softly and her words had an indulgent tone that was similar to the way she spoke to him.

  "I'm on my way, yeah. I'm just lecturing Spiderman on staying out of trouble while I'm gone."

  Peter's enhanced hearing picked up what sounded like a young boy asking excitedly, "You're with _Spiderman_ right now? Oh that's awesome! You have to tell me about him when you get here."

  He tried his best to ignore the stab of jealousy he felt as he realized that the fond smile Miss Stark had now was the same one she gave to him.

  "I'll be there before dinner, Harley, tell your sister not to worry."

  And she was having _dinner_ with his family?! Who the _heck_ was this kid?!

  "Alright, we're here."

  The declaration startled him and he realized Miss Stark had put her phone away. They'd reached his house.

  "Thanks, Miss Stark," he said sincerely.

  She waved away his gratitude with a carefree grin. "Tell your aunt I loved those cookies," she said with a wink.

  Peter chuckled a bit. "Will do." He was about to open the door when Miss Stark put a hand on his arm.

  "Hold it, Underoos. I actually do have instructions for you," she said, and Peter slumped into his seat with a pout. "You are, under _no circumstances_ , to get involved with anything above your league. We've discussed this, so I would like to not worry for the rest of the weekend about you, got it?" He nodded and she continued. "Think before acting. Don't be rash. And don't do anything I wouldn't do." She paused for a second, then frowned. "On second thought, don't do anything I _would_ do, either."

  "Um...," He blinked, trying to work out what she meant.

  "There's a gray area there, that's where you operate," she elaborated. Peter neglected to tell her that it still didn't make much sense. "If there's a problem, call Happy, he'll put you through to me."

  Peter resisted the urge to smirk at the man, who scowled at the rearview mirror.

  Miss Stark sighed. "You'll be okay, right?" She asked, suddenly seeming reluctant to part. "You'll be fine?"

  "I'll stay out of trouble, Ma'am, I promise. I'll be an angel." Peter made a cross over his heart and Miss Stark rolled her eyes.

  "Sure, sure," she scoffed. She reached over to him, an arm outstretched, and Peter instinctively brought his arm up to hug her around her shoulder. Immediately, she froze up.

  "Just getting the door for you, kiddo," she muttered, pulling back. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "We're not there yet."

  Peter felt himself blush a dark red. "Sorry," he stuttered. "See you next weekend, Miss Stark." He dashed out of the car in record time. Feeling eyes on his back, he turned around at the last step before the door to the building and saw Miss Stark watching him, waiting for him to go inside. She gave him a little wave and a smile, but it seemed a bit forced and he wondered if she was upset about the ' _hug_ '. As he waved back, he wondered absently if that kid, Harley, hugged her often. Then he berated himself for feeling jealous of someone he'd never met and slipped into the warmth.

 

* * *

 

  Harley made sure his father was alone to greet Toni when she came. He knew he had something important to talk to her about, so he herded Lizzie to the workshop. But then, leaving her with strict instructions not to touch his stuff, he sneaked over to the open window and did his best to listen in on the conversation.

  "Look, Jackson, I get it, I really do," Toni was saying. "But are you sure I'm your only option? Your sister-in-law, you said she wants them, why not-"

  "She's just as flighty as her sister, the kids' mother," Jackson interrupted. And yeah, Harley knew what this was about. His father was dying. Of stomach cancer. He only had around half a year left.

  Swallowing back his grief, the thirteen year old focused on the conversation again.

  "Look, Toni, I know this is too much to ask-"

  "It's really not, that's not what I'm-"

  "But I can see how much you care for them," Harley's father said softly. "Lizzie's only ever known you as a mother figure. Hell, she started calling you ' _mom_ ' barely a year after knowing you. I didn't stop her, but neither did you. And Harley looks at you like you gave him the world and the thing is, I know you would do just that."

  Toni had gone silent and Harley waited with bated breath. If he had to live with someone other than his own father, it was going to be Toni or no one else.

  "You're right," Toni agreed quietly. "I would give them the world if they asked. If you're sure about this, I'll be more than happy to have them. I'd love it."

  "I'm sure," Jackson Keener breathed in gratitude. "I'll send you the papers when I can. Thank you Toni. So much."

  Harley ran back to the workshop, well aware that Toni was making her way there right now. When she did walk in, Harley was seated at the desk, swinging his legs like he'd been there all along. Lizzie leapt into her arms first and Toni spun her around with a laugh.

  "Well, you haven't grown all that much," she teased. "You sure you're eating all those vegetables?"

  Lizzie giggled. "Come on, mom, you know I do."

  As soon as the blond let her go, Harley approached her. She didn't spin him around, of course, but she held him a little tighter, a little longer, bending down to press her nose in his hair.

  "I know you were listening," she whispered.

  "I already knew everything," he whispered again.

  Toni seemed to smile and Harley felt envious of his sister. He sometimes wanted to call Toni ' _mom_ ', too, but something caused him to chicken out. He even felt jealous of all the SI interns who got to see her so often. Especially of that one Parker kid she talked about, the one who helped her in her private lab.

  But, he thought, as Toni gave him a last squeeze before letting go, nobody else got to see this part of her. _Right_?


	17. Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bucky and the Soldier are two different entities. And he can't always control the other. In fact, he never can.

  The Winter Soldier had retreated again. Bucky was grateful, but he bitterly wished it could have done so half an hour ago, when he'd still been in a Siberian wasteland, fighting a worthless battle.

  The faint memory of long-forgotten words ran circles in his head: ' _Most important rule of the Army, soldiers; never leave a man behind_.'

  Bucky felt sick. He'd broken the rule. He'd left Stark behind. He'd left her behind injured and betrayed. Why hadn't he told Steve to bring her with them? Why had he attacked her in the first place? He'd completely deserved the hit she'd been aiming to land on him. It wasn't as if she had been about to kill him. He didn't know her at all, but he'd seen footage of the Iron Woman in battle. He knew what she was capable of.

  But then she'd hit Steve and the idiot obviously hadn't recognised her intentions, mistaking it as an attempt to kill, not injure. He'd fought back and Bucky had fallen into the pattern of the Soldat, who, unable to sit idly by a battle risking his mission, had joined in, landing blow after blow while Bucky, in the back of his screwed up mind, tried in vain to stop himself.

  End result: Stark had let herself get beat up by two super soldiers _(because anybody with brains could see how much she'd been holding back)_ and he'd escaped scott-free. Free of paying for all his crimes. For the people he'd murdered.

  Bucky hung his head in shame. He hoped Stark would heal soon. He wanted- _needed_ \- the chance to apologize to her.


	18. Mother And Son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harley accepts a truth. Toni makes a promise.

  Harley shivered as he walked down the hall, silently counting the closed doors in the dark as he passed them. One, Lila. Two, Lizzie. Three, Peter Parker. Four, Toni.

  "FRIDAY?" He called softly into the dark.

  " _I've unlocked the door, Master Keener_ ," FRIDAY whispered back.

  He didn't go in just yet. He simply stood there, one hand flat against the varnished wood, pretending he could feel the hum of electricity that ran throughout the entire Compound.

  The door opened and he stumbled back a few steps.

  "Steady," a voice murmured. A firm hand landed on his shoulder, stronger than he remembered it to be, but still familiar and reassuring, balancing him before he fell.

  He looked up to see his mo- _Toni_ , in loose pajamas and a science pun tee, with eyes that looked too awake.

  "You weren't sleeping?" He asked, in case he was wrong.

  "Neither were you, by the looks of it," she replied and steered him into her room.

  Harley found himself feeling much warmer already, even though the entire building was carefully temperature controlled, with each room suited to the occupant.

  "What's wrong?" Mo- _Ton_ \- mom, _whatever_ , asked, sitting on the bed cross-legged.

  Harley copied the position, wondering what to ask. "How's dad?" He ventured.

  Toni sighed. "I'm not gonna lie to you, kid, he's not doing well. The pain's dulled, thanks to the drugs. But it's gonna be tough on him the next month."

  He could read between the lines. "His _last_ month," he corrected.

  Toni bit her lips, but didn't say anything.

  "What happens... After he... _After_?"

  "We've talked about this, Harl," she said gently. "Legally, you and Lizzie will both be my kids. There's no way I'm letting you go where you don't wanna be."

  "Only legally?" He couldn't help but ask.

  Toni's gaze seemed to burn slightly. "I haven't thought of you as anything less than my own for a long time, you know."

  Harley swallowed, and picked at a loose thread on his sleeves. "I had a dream," he confessed.

  Toni waited.

  "I was in Siberia, that bunker. I was looking for you, but I couldn't find you. And then I did, but... But it was- you weren't- you were-" he stopped, and took a shuddering breath, remembering the phantom chill of a Russian winter, as he'd screamed his throat raw, begging in vain for Toni to wake up.

  He looked back up at her, furiously blinking back the sudden tears in his eyes. "Why didn't you kill them?" He asked harshly. "I've seen the specs for your suits, I know what they're capable of. You could have killed them without leaving a single trace, why didn't you? How were you planning on taking care of us, if you'd _died?"_

  He didn't realize he was crying until his mother brushed her hands against his face. Her palms felt different too, smoother, softer, but again, still strangely familiar.

  "I made a judgement call," she murmured, her voice tight with regret. "And I was wrong. I loved him too much to hurt him and I thought he loved me enough to feel the same."

  Harley struggled to breathe through his sobs.

  "I'm never gonna let anyone get that close again," she promised, fierce and sure. "It took me a while to realize it, but I swear I'm not leaving you behind, Harley. I swear it."

  He stifled his sobs and abruptly hugged her tightly around her middle. "Thanks, mom," he whispered, and felt her breath hitch, as she wrapped her arms around him as well.

  Mother and son fell asleep in each other's embraces, both free of nightmares until morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My Tumblr: bad-days-and-beautiful-nights


	19. Drinks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I feel like we need some fluff between our favourite wizard and genius.  
> This takes place a couple hours after Toni gives Rhodey his new braces.

  Stephen watched Toni as she entered the kitchen with a large bottle of scotch in her hands. To his surprise, she didn’t join him at the table immediately. Instead, she brought out two glasses and, pouring the liquid into them, she set one in front of him, and kept the other in her hand.  


  Stephen raised an eyebrow in question.  


  “So how was your trip to Kamar-Taj?” Was what came out of her mouth, as she sat close to him.  


  The second eyebrow joined the first. “Eventful,” he replied, wondering where she was going with this. “One of the students kept flirting with me.”  


  “What was her name?”  


  “Anthony.”  


  There was a pause, then a sudden smile of surprise made its way to her face. It was the first genuine emotion that wasn’t heartbreak he’d seen on her since she’d woken up. “No way,” she expressed. “Please tell me something happened!”  


  He shrugged, careful not to give too much away. “Three nights, just until I came back.”  


  She frowned for a minute, no doubt at the reminder that his trip had been cut short because of the Civil War. “What did he look like?”  


  He hesitated for a short while. “Brown hair, brown eyes, little on the short side. Artistic facial hair “  


  She nodded solemnly. “State of facial hair is important.”  


  “Very,” he agreed just as seriously, then cracked a smile of his own at the absurdness.  


  “Your turn.”  


  “Hmm?”  


  Toni tipped her glass towards him. “Ask me a question. I know you’ve got them.”  


  Stephen was starting to understand what was going on: she was giving him a chance to interrogate her like they’d all been too scared to, worried they’ll trigger her. She hated being under observation like that, but she hated being treated breakable more. This was her compromise.  


  When was the last time you are something more substantial than coffee and blueberries?” He asked.  


  Instead of answering, she took a sip of her drink, not breaking eye contact.  


  _Oh_. So  _that's_ how she wanted to play. “I get another question,” he warned and she nodded. “What have you been doing in the lab?”  


  This she answered readily. “Building braces. For Rhodey.” She gave a thoughtful little wave of her hands. “I'm thinking of opening up an entirely new line of prosthetics for Stark Medical.” Her eyes flitted somewhere too quick for him to follow.  
“I've never asked you before,” she said slowly, meeting his eyes again. “What did you think of... Of Ste- of...” She stopped, swallowing hard and drawing in a steadying breath. When she spoke again, her voice was only a little shaky. “Of Rogers?”  


  He didn’t bother lying. The scotch burned pleasantly on his tongue.  


  “Alright,” Toni drew out the word. “What did you think of the rest of them?”  


  “I never met Maximoff, but from what you told me, I probably would have sent her packing to Kamar-Taj. Wilson, from the little I saw of him, is way too taken in by the Captain America legend. Romanoff? I don't even have any worthwhile opinion on her.”  


  Toni sighed. “Clint had warned me that she would deflect. He said she cares about Rogers too much to be objective.”  


  “Did you ever consider she might have a thing for... You-know-who?”  


  “Somehow, I doubt that,” she frowned thoughtfully. “I think it's more of a familial thing. Do you think he's cheated on me, before kissing Sharon even?”  


  “I really couldn't say,” he answered honestly. “Before I wouldn’t have thought so, but knowing he is capable of it, makes me wonder. Did you ever consider changing your stance in the Accords? When he announced he didn’t stand by them?”  


  He expected a resolute _'no'_. He wasn't ready for her to take a drink.   


  “Do you think he ever loved me? Ever?”  


  Stephen didn’t bother pointing out that he should get one more question. Instead he avoided her eyes and took a large sip of his drink. “Do you still love him?”  


  He was ready for it this time, but it still felt like a knife twisting in his chest when she lifted the glass to her lips.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this turned out a little angsty.  
> I'd say, the next one or two chapters in this is gonna follow the same pattern...


	20. Baby Steps To Progress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said, this chapter is the bridge between recovering from the Wanda's curse and gearing up for revenge. It's only a couple small moments to show her healing, and the beginning of the beginning of setting the foundation for Ironstrange.

  It started with a simple challenge. 

  “You need to start following a proper schedule now, Toni,” Stephen insisted. “Extremis gives you more stamina, but it has to come from somewhere. If you don’t get enough food and rest-“

  “I _know_ that, Stephen,” Toni stressed. “I just forget and lose track of time.”

  “Well, find out a way to keep it, otherwise I'll have to force you into leaving your work and you hate when we-“

  “Fine.”

  “-but you’re not- sorry?”

  Toni smirked, a mischievous tilt of the lips that had his heart flipping dangerously in his chest. “You’re welcome to interrupt me and drag me out of the lab.”

  Stephen stared suspiciously. “What's the catch?”

  “You can’t actually come in, physically or astrally.”

  “... Okay-“

  “No portals, either,” she added. “And you can’t send anyone else.”

  Stephen took a minute to consider. “Alright. But you can’t ignore me when I do call you.”

  She grinned. “Deal.”

  In hindsight, Toni should have known better than present Stephen with a challenge. After all, he was just as competitive as her and insinuating that he couldn’t do something? He was going to move mountains to prove he could.

  For the next few days, she kept to a good schedule, always leaving the lab on time and showing up to meals. It lasted for over a week. On the tenth day, she began the actual engineering of a new project.

  She was trying to hammer the vibranium flat, resolutely ignoring the fact that this had been lodged into her chest around three months ago, when she felt something breeze past her ear. Frustrated at the stubbornness of the shield ( _'just like the man who used it’_ she thought viciously) and it’s refusal to bend even the tiniest bit, she dismissed the sensation as loose strands of hair and ignored it. Speaking of which, she needed to cut her hair, she mused, running a finger through the greasy ponytail. It was hanging till her waist

  Then she caught movement out of the corner of her eye.

  Whirling around, she brought up her hand, gauntlet around her hand and repulsor ready to blast whoever managed to get into the lab, without FRIDAY alerting her. She blinked in solid confusion at the butterfly innocently flitting around her laptop, instead.

  She tilted her head. _How the fuck did that get in?_   
Stupidly she reached out to catch it. It took off immediately, large wings fluttering as it avoided her hands and flew around her head. To her surprise, three more joined it. _Where in hell where they coming from?_

  “Um, FRI?” She called. “Where did they come from?”

  “No idea, Boss,” the AI chirped back. Toni was too distracted by the insects to notice the amusement in her voice.

  They were really pretty, though, she thought, as one of them dared to hover right in front of her nose; pale blue wings with a hint of green and grey running through it.

  Then they started flying over to the door.

  Frowning, half-curious, she followed them. They were fast, but the vivid colours made them impossible to miss in the dimly lit hallways of the stairs outside of the lab. She sprinted after them, blinking in surprise when they disappeared.

  Literally, just vanished right in front of her.

  She blinked, realising where she was.

  “It's time for dinner,” Stephen said, looking far too smug as orange sparks faded from his hands.

  Toni blinked again. Pale blue, green and grey.   
She suddenly felt the urge to face-palm. They’d been the exact colour of Stephen's eyes.

  “Alright, you win,” she grumbled, fighting back the smile that threatened to break through. “Asshole.”

  Stephen laughed. “Admit it, you liked them.”

  “Much more than I like you at the moment,” she retorted, joining him at the table.

  They started appearing every time she got lost in her head. Toni wasn’t about to admit it any time soon, but she loved those little butterflies. __

 

* * *

 

  Peter tried his best to sneak in. The common area was silent, with Aunt Pepper still at work, Happy gone to drive her home, the Keener and Barton kids off doing... Something. Miss Stark was... Somewhere. And Dr Wizard was... Somewhere else.

  He hadn’t counted on the wizard arriving through his portal, just as he crossed the floor. “Oh, hello, Peter, you’re back early tod-“ The words ground to a halt as he spotted what the teenager had been trying to hide. “Peter,” he said very calmly. “What is that?”

  Peter gave the sweetest smile he could manage. “This is Toki,” he announced, holding up the kitten. “This lady was putting up a litter of kittens for sale and I found them while I was on patrol.”

  Dr Strange fixed him with what was very close to a glare. “So you decided to adopt one. And you can’t take it home because...”

  “Aunt May would kill me,” he supplied.

  “I don’t think Toni’s going to be very okay with it, either.”

  “Oh, come on, Doc,” Peter pleaded. “Maybe she’ll listen to you.”

  The wizard scoffed. “I am not playing devil’s advocate for you. And don’t give me those puppy eyes of yours, it doesn’t work on me.”

  “Uh, yeah, it does,” Peter pointed out. “I've seen you around Miss Stark, it works whenever she does it to you. Where do you think I learned it from?”

  Before he could argue, Miss Stark walked in. Almost immediately, she zeroed in on the elephant- well, cat- in the room.

  “Oh, my god,” she squealed, and wow, Peter had never heard that noise from an adult before. “Where did you get him from? He’s so cute!"

  “Found him up for adoption while I was on patrol,” Peter said. “His name is Toki.” He decided not to mention the logic behind the name.

  Miss Stark looked almost amused as she carefully took the kitten into her arms. “Please tell me you did not name him after the Norse god who attacked New York.” It would make sense, given how it was really just a ball of black fluff, with wide green eyes.

  Peter averted his eyes, lest she figured out how close to the truth she was.

  The kitten purred contentedly as Miss Stark rubbed the top of its head.

  “So, I can keep it here, right?” Peter asked eagerly. “Because, Dr Wizard said you won't be okay with it.”

  The tall man started spluttering. “Well, how was I to know? You've never mentioned wanting a pet to me before!”

  “I’m a mysterious person, Stephen,” Miss Stark said gravely. Then she smiled up at him just as sweetly as Peter had. “We’re keeping him here, Stephen, please. You don't have any problems, do you?”

  “Stop looking at me like that!” he groaned. “You're teaching Peter how to play with people’s minds, he actually tried to do that puppy-eyes trick to me a minute ago.”

  “You're learning, young buck,” Miss Stark cheered with a wink and Peter grinned back. “I'll just take Toki to the vet once to make sure he's healthy and safe. You coming?”

  Peter nodded, going upstairs to grab a coat. When he came back down, Miss Stark was speaking cutely to the kitten and Dr Wizard... Hunh. Dr Wizard was staring at Miss Stark with the fondest, most lovesick look Peter had ever seen outside of a teenager.

  That was interesting. Maybe, he should start reading the Ironstrange fanfiction after finishing with Frostiron.

  Maybe, he should also talk to the Keener guy, see if he knew anything about those two.

 

* * *

 

  Toni yelped as there was a sudden burst of smoke, and then the smell of singed hair. Dropping the soldering rod and swatting frantically at the smouldering tips of her long plait, she didn’t notice DUM-E creeping up behind her, until the fire extinguisher sprayed her all over.

  “Thanks, DUM-E,” she grumbled. “FRI, how long have I been in the lab?”

  “Dr Strange will be sending you the butterfly signal in about fifteen minutes, Boss.”

  “Yeah, tell him not to bother, I’m heading up for a shower.” 

  In the safety of her bedroom, Toni stood in the front of the mirror and fingered the ends of her hair, her eyes focused on the arc reactor in her chest. The white towel wrapped around her body covered up most of the glow, but she knew it was there. She wasn’t likely to forget it any time soon.

  She sighed, letting her gaze travel up to her wet hair again. She hadn’t had the chance to cut it, and then just before the Ultron affair, Ste- Rogers- had casually mentioned he liked her hair long. She hadn’t bothered after that.

  Now, though? _Fuck it_ , she thought to herself. It was her hair, and keeping it long got in the way of her work. Grabbing the pair of safety scissors she’d found somewhere in the bathroom cabinets, she took a deep breath to settle herself.

  _-FRI, is this a bad idea?-_

_-Doesn't seem like one to me, Boss-_

  Twenty minutes later, when she walked down to the common floor for dinner, Pepper screamed. “No no no no **NO**! If you wanted a haircut, you could have told me, I’d have set up in appointment!”

  Clint winked at her once, likely remembering what Rogers had said to her as well, while Laura simply complimented that she looked better like this. 

  Then Stephen came in. To this day, he would deny having walked into a wall at the sight of Toni laughing brightly at Pepper’s violent reaction, looking much lighter and happier than she had in so long.

 

* * *

 

  Stephen lay in bed hopelessly, as sleep evaded him. He wasn’t even sure why he couldn’t sleep, he just fucking couldn’t. 

  “Friday?” He whispered into the darkness. It was the weekend, so he was staying over at the Compound. 

  “Yes, Doc?” The ever-present AI replied. 

  “Never mind,” he groaned. What was he going to ask her anyway? 

  “Doc, if I may,” FRIDAY spoke up. “Boss is working in the lab. Maybe, you could speak with her if you’re not able to sleep.”

  Never let it be said that FRIDAY wasn’t as observant as JARVIS. If she were human, she would have been slapping her forehead at how painfully obvious humans were when it came to their feelings. As it was, the only thing she could do was continue the pet-project she’d found in JARVIS' servers; the one he’d gone to great lengths to keep from Boss: **Project Ironstrange**.

  After all, she hadn’t been all that fond of Steve Rogers either.

  Stephen thought it over. Sleep wasn’t about to make an appearance tonight, so he might as well go down to see Toni.

  The lab was lit up only at one workstation. Stephen tapped in his code and made his way over to where Toni was half-reclined on the ratty old couch Pepper had insisted she put there. 

  “Dumbledore,” she greeted, looking up from her laptop to wave at him. “Can't sleep?”

  Stephen forced her legs out of the way and sat beside her, only to have her place them on his lap. “I could ask you the same, Grindelwald.”

  She made a face. “Grindelwald, really? Do I seriously look like- wait, no, I’m actually fine with it. I get to do Jude Law.”

  Stephen rolled his eyes at that. “What are you working on?” He asked, noticing the Spider-Man suit on a nearby table.

  Toni scooted to allow him a view of her screen. “I am programming some fail-safes into his suit.”

  Stephen silently surveyed what looked like gibberish to him. “The **'Baby Monitor Protocol'**?” He snorted, pointing at the bold words amid the lines of code.

  “The AI in his suit will record everything and send it to FRIDAY automatically.”

  “You know that name is gonna piss him off, if he ever finds out.” He pointed out.

  Toni grinned. “I know, I named them all the same way. **Training Wheels Protocol** , **Babysitter Protocol** , so on. It’s for when he figures out how to hack the suit.”

  Stephen frowned. “You think he’s going to hack the suit?”

  “As soon as he gets tired of me tracking his every movement.”

  “And you’re encouraging it? Indirectly?”

  “Sometimes, you gotta run before you can walk,” Toni recited. “Besides, there's a secondary tracker, too advanced to be hacked without voice-scans, that’ll be activated as soon he disables the first one. Plus, the AI is connected to FRIDAY. You can't sever it without getting to FRI, and that’s impossible, unless you’re me.”

  They sat in silence for some time, Toni working and Stephen leaning back with his eyes closed and listening to the sound of tapping on the keyboard. The low lighting of the lab and the steady sound of breathing was lulling him to sleep, so he didn’t realize Toni had stopped working until he started missing the tapping sound.

  He opened his eyes to see her watching him intently. 

  “What?”

  Toni tilted her head to the side contemplatively. “You know how I managed to get Rhodey back on his feet?” She started. “What if I say I might be able to do the same for your hands? Stop them shaking? Take away the pain?”

  Stephen’s breath caught in his chest. “Can you?” He breathed.

  Toni nodded, her eyes serious and sombre. “I’m sure of it.”

  Stephen opened his mouth to say _'yes'_. Of course, he wanted it, he’d wanted it for so long that he’d forgotten how much. But the twist in his gut stopped him. Christine’s voice echoed somewhere in the back of his head: _'There are other things that can give your life meaning.'_

  “Stephen?”

  “Does it bother you?” He asked curiously. “Does it bother you that my hands shake?”

  Toni frowned. “No, and it never will. But it does bother me that you feel pain because of it. I know it’s a lot less than it used to be right after the accident, but it shouldn’t be there at all. If there’s a way to stop that-”

  “Why didn’t you get rid of the scars?” He interrupted. “When you had the reactor removed, you could have had the scars removed as well. Why didn’t you?”

  Toni considered this. “I thought about it,” she agreed. “But... But I needed it as a reminder of what had happened to me. Of what my... ignorance and... arrogance had resulted in. It was a reminder... To never allow myself to be that person I used to be again.”

  Stephen waited for understanding to cross her face. “Oh,” she mouthed.

  He nodded. “I’d love to live without the pain,” he admitted. “But I’m afraid, that without the physical evidence, I'll revert back to the egotistical asshole I was. I don’t want to be like that again, either.”

  Toni huffed out a laugh. “God, we make a masochistic pair, don’t we?”

  Stephen laughed in agreement, and Toni closed her eyes and leaned back.

  “You look good with your hair short, by the way,” Stephen added and Toni looked up at him again.

  He seemed to hesitate before bringing up a hand and running it through the silky tresses. She’d simply slashed it off to shoulder-length, then Pepper had managed to get it professionally fixed, so instead of choppy edges, it was now smooth and curled over her shoulder blades. 

  “Just _'good'_?” Toni teased.

  “Lighter. Happier. Healthier.” He shrugged. “Take your pick.”

  Toni didn't answer. Instead, she watched the way Stephen seemed to be avoiding her eyes for an instant, before smiling at her again.

  “Thank you,” she replied. Maybe it was obvious that she didn’t just mean it for the compliment. It must have been, because long fingers twisted a curl around, before cupping her face. 

  Something had changed. Toni would never have been able to pinpoint it, but she could sense the undercurrent of sudden nervousness as she met Stephen’s eyes, seeing the apprehension in them. She swallowed, feeling abruptly unsure of herself.

  “Stephen,” she started to whisper. He cut her off by pressing a barely-there kiss to her parted lips. Her breath caught at the utter _gentleness_ of the gesture, and she watched with a shocked gaze as he seemed to collect himself, breath shaky as he pulled back and once again struggled to meet her eyes. 

  “It's late,” he said quietly. “We should probably get some sleep.”

  “Yeah, yeah, uh-“ she cleared her throat as he stood up, sensing that he did not want to talk about what had just happened. She could respect that. But she didn’t really want him to go either. “Just... Can you... stay here with me, please?”

  He changed his mind as he opened his mouth. “Not tonight, Toni,” he said, maybe a little wistfully. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  She didn’t argue, but she watched him leave the lab, and wondered why what had just happened, happened. Knowing Stephen, and herself, she wasn’t likelihood to get the answer to that anytime soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As predicted, Toni and Stephen are going to completely ignore that that little moment between them ever happened. Or well, Stephen wants to pretend, because he's still not entirely sure whether it's the right time and Toni is willing to follow his lead on the subject, because no way is she going to screw up her friends with Stephen.  
> Also, about the cat, Toki: my friend and I had been discussing alternate ship names and came up with Toki for Loki/Toni. She mentioned it'd be a good name for a cat. So Peter, who very obviously reads fanfiction, decided to name it that.


	21. Brothers By Bond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for Harley and Peter bonding!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This spans from the beginning of A Soul of Steel... to the last chapter of it.

  Peter felt nauseous. Miss Stark was unconscious still, though she looked closer to _dead_. Dr Strange was standing stock still, listening intently as FRIDAY explained the pros and cons of Extremis. Miss Potts was still sobbing, with Happy and Colonel Rhodes on either side, both with teary eyes. 

  He wanted to squeeze his eyes and run away. The smell of antiseptics, the overabundance of white; it was all giving him a headache and the mask was suffocating him.

  “Spider-Man.”

  He startled, looking up to see Dr Strange looking at him, concern masking the tears and pain in his eyes. How extremely considerate of him, Peter thought, not to use his real name.

  “It's okay if you go and come back later,” he whispered.

  He wanted to protest, because he couldn’t leave when Miss Stark was so close to _never coming back_. 

  But Dr Strange was looking at him with sad, pretty eyes, the same way Miss Stark did sometimes, and he nodded. Dr Strange was right; they’d agreed to use Extremis, and if it worked anything like all the news reports he vaguely remembered, then he was gonna be suffering from a sensory overload and that would risk giving away his identity.

  “I'll be in my room,” he whispered.

  Walking away, with a last glance at Miss Stark through the glass, he made his way to the window. As he swung out, that other kid, who’d appeared out of god-knew-where, looked at him with mild curiosity, before turning his pale, drawn face away again.

  Pushing away his own confusion, Peter swung out of sight, then crawled over the walls of the Compound, FRIDAY connected in his ears and guiding him to a guest room.

  Once there, he was surprised to find the room already stocked with a few changes of clothes, with the layout similar to the way he’d rearranged his room in the Tower.

  Even as sad and terrified he was, he found himself smiling a bit. “Thanks, Miss Stark,” he whispered.

  It was just as he stashed the suit in the closet and was about to walk back to the med bay, that the screams started. High, fearful, pained, keening and unmistakably Miss Stark. No normal human should have been able to hear them, not from the other side of the building. Peter wished he was normal.

  He groaned, his ears thrumming as painfully as his heart. 

  “ _ **Peter, maybe you should leave,**_ ” FRIDAY suggested.

  Peter grit his teeth and shook his head, stumbling to the bed. “No,” he refused. “No, I’m not leaving. I can't leave, FRIDAY.”

  Maybe the AI said something, but Peter placed the heels of his hands of over his ears and tuned her out, trying to breathe instead.

 

* * *

 

  Harley felt sick. It had been almost twenty minutes since they’d injected Toni with Extremis and she still hadn’t stopped screaming.

  It wasn’t until Hawkeye placed a firm hand on his shoulder, telling him to at least unpack and get freshened up, that he shouldered his lone bag and took the elevator. The new AI, FRIDAY, automatically began taking him to a floor.

  “ _ **There are several rooms here, Harley**_ ,” FRIDAY told him. “ ** _Only a few are occupied, and Boss may request changes in the arrangement later, but for now, you may have any other room you wish._** ”

  “Thanks, FRI,” he said quietly. He reached towards the nearest door handle.

  “ ** _No, wait, not that one!_** ”

  Too late. Harley pushed the door open and froze. There was another boy inside, maybe a year or two older, sitting on the bed doubled over as if in pain. He had straightened when Harley entered and was staring at him with wide eyes.

  For a few seconds, they sized each other up, brown meeting brown.

  "Who the hell are you?” Harley demanded.

  The boy cleared his throat. “I'm- uh, I'm Peter. Peter Parker.”

  _Oh right. Toni’s favourite intern._ “What are you doing here?”

  Parker grimaced. “I... I was... I, uh, just, thought I'd come over and see how Miss Stark was doing.”

  Harley came further in. “I didn't see you in the med-bay.”

  “I... Probably left before you came. Thought I’d get some rest.”

  He narrowed his eyes. The guy was lying. Badly. “Well, if you're concerned, they've decided to give her Extremis. You might as well know.” He knew he was being rude, but hey, at least, he was informing the boy. He couldn't hear Toni's cries from this far, but still...

  Parker winced, a shudder passing through him. There was a flicker of pain over his features, and Harley suddenly felt angry. Who was this kid? What right did he have to feel hurt when Toni was fighting for her life?

  “I should go,” he said stiffly. _Before I say something stupid_. “See you.” _Hopefully never._

 

* * *

 

  Peter had seen Miss Stark defiant, during her press conference when she’d returned from Afghanistan. He’d seen her sad, he’d seen her charm the socks off government officials, he’d seen her deliberately annoying the senate.

  He’d never seen her _broken_.

  Until now.

  He was standing on the other side of the glass, unable to leave, just like the rest of them. He could see her staring up at the white ceiling, the sonography image in her hands, her knuckles white where she gripped the edge. He kept thinking she would cry, for the baby she’d lost, but no. She just... Stared blankly ahead.

  He sneaked a glance to see the other kid, who had taken a seat next to Dr Strange, toying with something small in his hand, some sort of penlight, with Iron Woman colours.

  The guy looked up at him and Peter wasn’t surprised to see the glassiness in his eyes. He knew, without a doubt, that his own were very much the same.

 

* * *

 

 BHarley watched from his place on the floor as Toni walked in with Parker. They were chatting quietly and he felt a stab of intense jealousy that he squashed down immediately.

  Everyone else filtered in. Rhodey, Hawkeye and his wife Laura sat on the couch. The Facial Hair Wizard and Mr Cyborg stood behind. Pepper and Not-So-Happy were on the loveseat. Lizzie, who'd arrived with their dad a few days ago, had disappeared somewhere with the baby hawks. As Toni took a spot in front of the room, Parker came by and sat next to Harley.

  "You’re Harley, right? Harley Keener?”

  Harley glared slightly. “How do you know?”

  He shrugged. “Miss Stark talks about you sometimes.” 

  Harley blinked at the faint envy colouring his tone, the longing way he spoke. And just like that, his own jealousy abated. “She talks about you too,” he admitted. “Says you're her favourite intern.”

  Parker- _no, Peter_ \- brightened up, just as Toni started speaking.

  Then the video played. Harley watched, horrified, as Captain America and Bucky Barnes destroyed the armour. As Toni _let_ them destroy her.

  He wasn’t aware of when she left the room, or when the videos ended and everyone started talking all at once. All he could do was stare blankly ahead, wondering what had gone so horribly wrong that he’d almost lost his mom.

 

* * *

 

  Peter snuck along the outside of the Compound. Today’s patrol had been easy, unlike yesterday’s. Humming under his breath, he inched open the window to his room, crawling in silently, in case the other people staying at the Compound were still awake.

  As he dropped lightly from the ceiling, he tore off his mask.

  "Very impressive, Spider-Man.”

  In split second, Peter had spun around, wrists locked in a position to punch as webs shot out. Except... “Harley?!”

  The younger kid looked disgruntled, uselessly tugging at his hands to free it from the webbing. “Yeah, duh. I’m not wearing a mask, am I?”

  Peter honestly wanted to slap himself. _Spidey sense_?  _Hello_? Why hadn’t it warned him? “What are you even doing in my room?” He demanded, grabbing a pocket knife he kept for this very purpose and cutting the webs loose.

  “I wanted ice cream and company. Mom is busy and everyone else is asleep.”

  Peter stepped away, careful not to react to the ' _mom_ '. He had no right to be jealous, he knew that. He just needed to look at Harley's red eyes, which he was trying to hide, and remind himself that the Keeners had just lost their father. And they’d known Miss Stark for years.

  In any case, if Harley wanted company, Peter couldn’t refuse. It wasn’t Harley’s fault that Peter wanted the same sort of attention from Miss Stark.

  “Alright, let's go,” he agreed. “Let me, just, you know...” He gestured vaguely. 

  Harley smirked, oddly familiar. “Yeah. You're too obvious on your own, you might as well take off that costume.” He hesitated, then reached out to rub his fingers on the edge of the sleeve. “She built this for you, right?”

  Peter nodded. “How can you guess?”

  “The piping is Starkanium. It's a pretty expensive element to buy and no one but SI's R&D knows how to synthesise it. Even so, they can't use it without mom's authorization.”

  “This is lined with Starkanium?” Peter looked at the faint lines that ran over the fabric like webs, noticing their metallic sheen with new interest. “I didn't know that. I'm more into biochemistry than mechanics.”

  Harley hummed. “I'll let you get dressed. I'll be in the kitchen.”

  “Wait.” Peter frowned. “You said I'm ' _obvious_ '. What did you mean? How long have you known?”

  To his chagrin, Harley just smiled mischievously and slipped out of his room.

 

* * *

 

  “Alright, Parker, spill.” Harley watched in fascination as Peter braided Lizzie’s hair. “Where did you learn to do that?”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t have a lot of friends when I was younger. So when I got bored, I used to play with May’s hair. At some point, I just learned how to style it.”

  “May?” Cooper asked, walking in with his sister in tow. 

  "Yeah, she’s my aunt,” he explained. “She and uncle Ben took me in and raised me after... My parents died. Then after Uncle Ben died, a year ago, it’s just been May and me.”

  There was a short silence. Everyone was very determinedly not looking at each other, even Lizzie, the youngest of the lot.

  "So, she's like your mom, now?" Lila asked.

  Peter thought about it for a second. "No," he said decisively. "She's more of a much older sister. She was pretty young when I was born, only older than me by ten years. That's why I call her  _May._ But she's awesome though. She... She's just really cool."

  Then Harley spoke up. “Well, you've got us too, now.” He hesitated. “Right?”

  Cooper and Lila chimed in, Lizzie squirming around to kiss Peter’s cheek. 

  Peter laughed, ruffling the blinde's hair. “Yeah, I guess I do.”

 

* * *

 

  Peter tucked Toki in her little basket they’d bought on the way back from the vet. Once he was sure the fur ball was asleep, he looked around once to see Dr Wizard was there too. Taking the opportunity, he stood quietly and watched.

  Dr Strange was talking, some sort of legal jargon and Miss Stark was nodding along, flipping through a draft of the Accords at the same time. As he spoke, Dr Strange brought a hand up to brush away a curl from her face. That startled Miss Stark and she turned to him with a questioning look. Peter watched with bated breath as the movement brought them super close to each other.

  _Please kiss. Please kiss. Please- no, wait, I don't want to SEE them kiss. Are they gonna? Should I leave? Or wait to make sure?_

  But Dr Strange just took a deep breath and shook his head and Miss Stark looked back at the file, not noticing the sad look on Dr Strange.

  Okay, Peter decided. Time to talk to Harley.

 

* * *

 

  “So, you _knew_ that Miss Stark likes Dr Strange?”

  Harley nodded sagely. “After you, she talked about him the most. I didn’t know she was engaged to Captain Murica, so I thought they were together.”

  “You never _asked_?”

  He gave him a look. “ _No_! I don’t want to hear about my mom’s love life, thank you very much.”

  “Okay, well, do you think she knows that Doctor Dude likes her too?” Peter wondered.

  Harley scoffed. “Mom is a genius, but she’s the most oblivious person ever. I don’t think she even knows that _she_ likes _him_ , let alone the other way around.”

  Peter met his eyes then. Harley held the stare and in a second, reading each other's mind, they both grinned.

  “Ten bucks say she makes the first move.”

  Peter made a face. “I'll take that bet. If Miss Stark has no idea, then she can’t do anything about it.”

  “True.” Harley nodded. “But, she’s also super impulsive sometimes. She won’t even know _what_ she’s doing or _why_ she’s doing it, until she’s already done it.”

  “Friday?” Peter looked up at the ceiling. “You'll keep an eye on them for us and let us know, right?”

  “ ** _With pleasure, Peter_**.”

 

* * *

 

  Peter watched nervously as the lady on the news announced the pardons of the Rogue Avengers. Next to him, Harley was chewing his lip, glaring at the screen. On the couch, Cooper and Lila were also watching, though they didn’t quite understand the gravity of it.

  “I can't believe they get to come back,” Peter murmured.

  Harley nodded. “Mom’s gonna need all the support she can get.” He turned to the room at large. “Let's make a promise. No matter what happens, we don’t let them hurt her again.”

  “We should have a _talk_ with them as soon as possible after they arrive,” Lila suggested.

  “And as much as possible, we don’t leave mom alone with them,” Peter put in.

  They all fist bumped each other. It wasn’t until Harley turned to him later with a smirk and a knowing wink that Peter realized what he’d said.


	22. Shatter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One relationship starts to strengthen and one starts to strain.

  Toni knocked gently on the open door, making Vision look up at her in some surprise.

  “Miss Stark,” he greeted with a genial smile.

  “It's Toni, Viz.” She smiled back. “How’re you doing?”

  Vision looked confused. “Fine, I suppose. Why do you ask?”

  Toni sighed, leaning against the doorframe. “Don't think I haven't noticed how stiff you get when you pass through the kitchen. Even after getting the hole filled in.”

  This time, the android flinched the slightest bit. “Yes, there is that,” he murmured. “I had hoped I would have cured myself of it before the Rogues' return, but...”

  She nodded, understandingly. “It's not easy to forget something so traumatic like that. Especially because you trusted Wanda.”

  “I... I thought we were friends,” he said slowly. “Perhaps more.”

  “I know,” she soothed. “It's not your fault she doesn't understand what friendship and love are supposed to entail.” She paused, considering. “You know, you don't have to stay here, Viz. Not now that she's here. If you want to get away for some time, there's nothing stopping you.”

  He smiled softly now. “Thank you, Toni,” he said softly. “But I’d rather stay here and make sure she doesn't harm anyone else.”

  She peered at him. “I haven't been very good to you,” she confessed. “For so long, I kept hearing JARVIS whenever you spoke and it just hurt, because I knew you weren't him. And I don't _want_ to to be him. I just...”

  “I understand,” he was quick to reassure. “Truth be told, I was afraid I was a disappointment to you, but... I have enough of JARVIS' code to know that you would never force me into another identity that's not my own.”

  Toni smiled at him. “Let's try to be more open with each other, okay?”

  “That sounds good,” he agreed.

 

* * *

 

  Peter hummed to himself as he browsed the internet. They'd been set homework in the form of a short biography on a celebrity of their choice. Peter _(surprise, surprise)_ had picked his very own mentor, of course.

  Thinking he might as well start with the obvious, rather than have to stumble through gossip rags with photos he _absolutely_  did  _not_ want to see, he opened up her Wikipedia page.

  **“Antonia Evelyn Carbonell-Stark, known widely as Toni Stark, born on...”**

  He froze, reading the full name again. And again. And again.

  _Carbonell_.

  Suddenly alert and stiff, his eyes flickered up to the photo on the mantel. The young girl sandwiched between Richard and Mary Parker.

  _Toni. Antonia. Annie. Carbonell. Annie Carbonell._

  The girl had always looked familiar, but he'd never been able to place her. Now, looking closer, it was all too easy to spot the smug smirk that was so familiar.

  But _no_. It _couldn't_ be.

  Fingers shaking all of a sudden, he typed in **"Toni Stark, 1990s”** and waited for the results.

  The first picture loaded. Peter felt his breath catch in shock. The girl on the screen, flashing a perfect smile to the camera at a press conference, was the same girl in the photo frame. But then... _why_?

  Suddenly restless, mind working in overdrive, he tried to reason to himself that Miss Stark had just been a colleague of his dad’s. Of course, she'd never personally met Peter. But then, why would there be a photo of her in the house? That meant she’d been close to his parents. Then she must have met Peter too. What if-?

  He stopped, realising he'd been pacing the room.  _Don't go there_ , he told himself sternly. There was no reason to believe Miss Stark had had any hand in his adoption by May and Ben.

  But...

  Silently berating himself, Peter gingerly stepped into May’s bedroom, glad she had a late shift. Internally apologizing for looking through a woman's belongings without her permission, he opened her wardrobe, rummaging around in the drawers. It didn't take him long to find an old adoption file, with his name written on it. Flipping it open, he went through his birth certificate, his medical certificate and the statement of adoption.  
He skimmed over the writing and came to the bottom of the page. There were three signatures. Uncle Ben and Aunt May, of course, and...

  Peter fell onto May's bed, unable to believe it. The third signature was labelled **Annie Carbonell.** But the signature itself read **Toni Stark.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no clear idea how adoption works so... :)

**Author's Note:**

> My Tumblr: bad-days-and-beautiful-nights


End file.
